Dive Brief:
- A federal judge pushed back on the constitutionality of a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom during oral arguments Thursday before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Judge Catharina Haynes asked the defense — who represented state and local education officials — why H.B. 71 passed in the Louisiana state legislature. “I'm respectful of the Ten Commandments, and I think everybody is, but that doesn't mean it has to be put in every classroom in a state under the First Amendment,” the judge said.
- The legal drama is playing out against a backdrop of 18 conservative-leaning states supporting the Louisiana law with a friend of the court brief and other states like Texas eyeing similar measures.
Dive Insight:
Louisiana's controversial Ten Commandments law was set to take effect Jan. 1. However, with a federal judge having put a pause on it, the state attorney general directing public schools to post the religious directives, and civil liberties groups telling them that doing so could open them to legal action — the situation for schools is anything but clear.
Thursday’s oral arguments in Roake v. Brumley marked the latest legal development on the matter since the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana in November temporarily paused the law. In that order, Judge John deGravelles said the plaintiffs had “easily established a likelihood of success” in their First Amendment case.
The ACLU and three other civil liberties organizations sent a letter earlier this month to Louisiana superintendents warning them not to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Doing so, they said, would open schools to “potential legal action by students and families” for violating the First Amendment.
Their letter came in response to guidance issued a few days prior by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill in which she advised district leaders to implement the law. In her guidance, Murrill shared four Ten Commandments posters that schools could choose from to display in their classrooms.
Defendants in the case include Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, several officials from the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and five local school boards.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a similar case, Stone v. Graham, that a Kentucky statute requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted on the walls of every classroom violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The ruling stated that the requirement to post the religious principles "had no secular legislative purpose" and was "plainly religious in nature."
Louisiana Solicitor General Jorge Benjamin Aguiñaga, who represented the defense during Thursday's oral arguments, differentiated the cases. Unlike schools in Kentucky, Aguiñaga said, the school board defendants in Louisiana said they don’t intend to post isolated displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. He added that most classrooms also have many other posters displayed on their walls.
Additionally, Aguiñaga said the Louisiana Legislature said it passed H.B. 71 because lawmakers recognized in the law’s text that “the Ten Commandments have historical significance as a foundation of our legal system.”
But during arguments for the plaintiffs — a multifaith group of nine public school families — Haynes said state representatives “clearly” passed H.B. 71 for religious reasons. “Isn’t that where the First Amendment is violated?” Haynes asked the plaintiffs' lawyer.
Attorney Jonathan Youngwood, who represented the plaintiffs, said if the law is enforced, the Ten Commandments would be a constant part of students’ lives, with the display posted in all of their classrooms every day. Louisiana’s requirement, he said, is “an endorsement of religion by the state.”
“You’re going to that room and other rooms 177 days a year, and you may not see it the first day,” Youngwood said. “You will see it by the end of the year. And if you don't see it in your science classroom, you're going to see it in your English classroom, and you're going to remember that for every year you were a student in the Louisiana schools, it was the constant.”
