Federal judge blocks state law ordering Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a state law that would require classrooms in Louisiana to post the Ten Commandments starting in January.

The injunction halts the legislation from being enforced while the litigation continues to play out in the courts.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles signaled in his order that the law is unconstitutional and has a mostly religious purpose, saying it “fails to comply with the Establishment Clause analysis.”

The Obama appointee rejected the claim that the Ten Commandments displays were meant to teach about its historical significance, saying other documents were not required to be on display.

“Any purported secular purpose was not sincere but rather a sham,” the judge wrote. “H.B. 71 is ’plainly religious in nature.’”

Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill, a Republican, told The Associated Press she would appeal the ruling. Louisiana’s Gov. Jeff Landry, also a Republican, supports the law.

“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal,” she said.

According to Ms. Murrill’s office, the ruling only binds five of the state’s school boards.

An appeal will go to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most conservative appeals court in the country.

The lawsuit was brought by a group of parents who challenged the legislation as running afoul of the First Amendment bar on the establishment of religion and likely discriminating against non-Christian students.

The law, H.B. 71, was passed in June by a Republican-controlled state legislature and requires all K-12 public schools to display a poster of the Ten Commandments, requiring the size to be at least 11 inches by 14 inches. State-funded universities are also required to post the Ten Commandments.

Other proposals in recent years by states to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed have not fared well. Proposals in Texas, Utah and Oklahoma were quickly threatened with legal action.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 1980 case that a law out of Kentucky similar to Louisiana’s requirement violated the First Amendment Establishment Clause, reasoning the law has no secular purpose.

The judge in Tuesday’s order ruled that this precedent is still good law.

“H.B. 71 is a direct infringement of our religious freedom rights, and we’re pleased and relieved that the court ruled in our favor,” said the Rev. Darcy Roake, a plaintiff in the case. “As an interfaith family, we expect our children to receive their secular education in public school and their religious education at home and within our faith communities, not from government officials.”

Heather L. Weaver, an attorney with the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said the ruling should serve as “a reality check.”

“Public schools are not Sunday schools, and today’s decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump has supported Louisiana’s law.

Earlier this year he posted on Truth Social, “I love the Ten Commandments in public schools, private schools, and many other places, for that matter. Read it — how can we, as a nation, go wrong???”

— This article was based in part on wire service reports.