A coalition of parents is trying to block the state law t requireshatThe Ten Commandments They won the legal battle in federal court to be displayed in public school classrooms next year.
U.S. District Judge John deGravelles issued an order Tuesday granting the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, which means the state cannot begin Friday on its plan to promote and create regulations covering the law once the lawsuit ends.
The judge wrote that the law was “facially unconstitutional” and “in all applications,” preventing Louisiana from enforcing it and enacting regulations requiring all public K-12 schools and colleges around it to display posters of the Ten Commandments.
DeGravelles, who heard the arguments On Oct. 21, the state ordered the attorney general’s office to “notify all schools that the Act is unconstitutional,” according to the legislation.
The law dictated that schools had until January 1 to comply. Attorney General Liz Murrill did not immediately respond to the judge’s ruling, but is expected to appeal.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed the GOP-backed legislation in June conservative agenda that reshaped the cultural landscape of Louisiana abortion rights from criminal justice to education.
The move sparked a coalition of Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and secular parents. to sue the state in federal court. They argued that the law “reasonably interferes with and burdens” their children’s right to raise their children in the religious doctrine of their choice.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Religious Freedom Foundation supported the lawsuit.
In their complaint, the parents said the law “sends a harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments … do not belong in their school community and are discouraged from practicing or expressing any faith.” does not agree with the religious preferences of the state”.
Stephen Green, a professor of law, history and religious studies at Willamette University in Oregon, testified against the law at a federal hearing, arguing that the Ten Commandments were not the foundation of the U.S. government and its establishment, and that if anything, the Founding Fathers believed in the separation of church and state.
At a press conference after the hearing, Murrill dismissed Green’s testimony as irrelevant to whether the posters violated the First Amendment.
“I think this law is constitutional, and we’ve shown that the law is constitutional in a number of ways. We’ve shown that in our briefings by creating a series of posters,” Murrill told reporters. “I say again, you don’t have to like the posters. The point is that you can make posters that are in line with the Constitution.”
In August, Murrill and Landry provided examples of how Ten Commandments posters can be made and displayed in classrooms for educational purposes. The demonstrations provided historical context for the orders, which the state believed made the law unconstitutional.
One poster features Moses and Martin Luther King Jr. compared, while another exposed the song “Ten Dueling Commandments” from the musical “Hamilton.”
Murrill said no public funds would be spent on printing the posters and they could be funded by private donations, but questions remain about what will happen to educators who refuse to obey the law.
The state expected the case could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which last heard the issue in 1980, when the justices ruled 5-4 that Kentucky’s placement of the Ten Commandments in public schools was unconstitutional.
Another state, Oklahoma faces similar allegations on a The Bible’s requirement being part of public school lesson plans in grades 5-12 and having a Bible in every classroom.
When asked what he would say to parents concerned about the Ten Commandments in public schools, Landry said in August: “Tell your child not to look at them.”