US appeals court temporarily lifts block on Louisiana Ten Commandments law – JURIST

A US federal appeals court on Friday temporarily lifted a trial court’s blocking of a Louisiana law mandating public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit limited the trial court’s earlier ruling, ensuring that the order applies to only the schools of the school board defendants. The appellate court’s lifting of the order will last until the court finishes reviewing the defendants’ appeal of the trial court’s order.

Louisiana officials had appealed the trial court’s order to the Fifth Circuit, arguing that the temporary order violated Louisiana law by requiring the notice of the law’s unconstitutionality to all schools instead of the schools operated by the defendant school boards. 

The US District Court for the Middle District Court of Louisiana issued the initial order on Tuesday, finding that the law was unconstitutional on its face and in all applications. The court explained that the law required the display in too wide of contexts, such as the display being in every public school classroom regardless of the subject matter taught or the age of the students. The court added that the law’s requirement that “[t]he text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the [display] and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font” indicated the law was designed to instill religious beliefs into public school children. Moreover, the court found the legislative history showed that a substantial motivation behind the law’s passage was coercing students into having certain religious beliefs. The court’s order also prohibited the defendants and their agents from enforcing the law and required educational officials to notify Louisiana school boards of that ruling. The court ordered that the decision remain in place until the trial concludes.

Louisiana law HB 71 passed in June, mandating public schools to display the Ten Commandments in each classroom. In July, Louisiana parents and civil rights organizations sued state educational officials and governmental bodies to block the enforcement of the law on the First Amendment grounds, specifically the prohibition of establishing a state religion and the right to free exercise of religion. The plaintiffs detailed that the classroom display would violate the free exercise of parents’ religious teachings for their children and the children not being pressured into refraining or participating in a religious exercise. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill represented the defendants and asserted that the law does not violate the First Amendment because it requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed with context about its significance in American history.