Judge will hear arguments to block Louisiana's Ten Commandments display requirement in schools

[October 21, 2024]  By SARA CLINE

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday will hear arguments on whether he should temporarily block a new Louisiana law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom by Jan. 1.

The hearing on that and other issues in a pending lawsuit challenging the new law is expected to last all day. It's unclear when U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles will rule.

Opponents say the law is an unconstitutional violation of separation of church and state and that the display will isolate students, especially those who are not Christian. Proponents argue the measure is not solely religious, but has historical significance to the foundation of U.S. law. Louisiana, a reliably Republican state that is ensconced in the Bible Belt, is the only state with such a requirement.

In June, parents of Louisiana public school children, with various religious backgrounds, filed the lawsuit arguing that the legislation violates First Amendment language forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty.

Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican who has backed the new law, for months has said that he looks forward to defending the mandate in court. When asked during an August press conference what he would say to parents who are upset about the Ten Commandments being displayed in their child’s classroom, he replied: “If those posters are in school and they (parents) find them so vulgar, just tell the child not to look at it.”

Across the country, there have been conservative pushes to incorporate religion into classrooms, from Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students to Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons.

The new law in Louisiana has been touted by conservatives, including former President Donald Trump.

A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

In June, the GOP presidential candidate posted on his social media network: “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???”

Louisiana's legislation, which applies to all public school K-12 and state-funded university classrooms, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed on a poster or framed document at least 11 inches by 14 inches (28 by 36 centimeters) where the text is the central focus and “printed in a large, easily readable font.” Each poster must also be paired with the four-paragraph context statement.

Additionally, tens of thousands of posters will likely be needed to satisfy the new law, considering Louisiana has more than 1,300 public schools Louisiana State University has nearly 1,000 classrooms at the Baton Rouge campus alone.

The mandate does not require school systems to spend public money on the posters, with Republicans saying the displays will be paid for by donations or the posters themselves will be donated by groups or organizations. Questions still linger about how the requirement will be enforced if a teacher refuses to hang up the Ten Commandments and what happens if there are not enough donations to fund the mandate.

In an agreement reached by the court and state last month, five schools specifically listed in the lawsuit will not post the commandments in classrooms before Nov. 15 and won’t make rules governing the law’s implementation before then. The deadline to comply, Jan. 1, 2025, remains in place for schools statewide.

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