NEW ORLEANS (AP) A federal appeals court in New Orleans issued an order Wednesday blocking Louisiana’s plan to exhibit the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms in the state.
A state motion to temporarily halt an earlier order issued by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge while the case is still pending was denied by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. DeGravelles declared that the measure, which was passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature, was explicitly religious and, on its face, illegal. Additionally, he claimed it amounted to the government’s unlawful compulsion of kids, who are legally obligated to attend school, on the basis of their religion.
A group of Louisiana public school parents of various faiths filed a lawsuit after Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill into law in June. They contend that the law is in violation of the First Amendment’s ban on the establishment of religions and the restriction of their free practice. Additionally, they claim that the planned poster-sized exhibit would alienate students, particularly non-Christian ones. The parents further contend that the Ten Commandments as they are outlined in the law are preferred by many Protestants and do not correspond to any version found in Jewish tradition.
The Ten Commandments, according to their proponents, have historical relevance for the establishment of American law and are not just religious. Elizabeth Murrill, the Republican state attorney general, stated that she disagreed with deGravelles’ conclusions and that the law is constitutional based on Supreme Court precedents.
Similar legislation mandating that the Ten Commandments be shown in classrooms has been proposed in a number of states in recent years, including Utah, Oklahoma, and Texas. Not one has gone by.
A similar Kentucky law was declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980, citing a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which states that Congress cannot enact legislation pertaining to the establishment of religion. The supreme court concluded that the law served a blatantly religious goal rather than a secular one.
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