Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Louisiana Law Requiring Public Schools to Display Ten Commandments [View all]

Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Louisiana Law Requiring Public Schools to Display Ten Commandments in Every Classroom

NEW ORLEANS – In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled today that a Louisiana law requiring public schools to permanently display a government-approved, Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom is unconstitutional. The decision upholds a federal district court’s November 2024 preliminary injunction in Rev. Roake v. Brumley, which prevents the defendant state officials and school boards from implementing the statute.

Pointing to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Stone v. Graham, which overturned a similar Kentucky law, the court of appeals held that Louisiana’s H.B. 71 violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As the court explained, Stone remains good law that is binding on lower courts and “nder Stone, H.B. 71 is plainly unconstitutional.”

The court further explained that, “under the statute’s minimum requirements, the [Ten Commandments] posters must be indiscriminately displayed in every public school classroom in Louisiana regardless of class subject-matter,” and thus, if allowed to go up, “those displays will cause an ‘irreparable’ deprivation of [the Plaintiffs’] First Amendment rights.”

Represented by the ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel, the plaintiffs in Roake v. Brumley are a multifaith group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools.

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-appeals-court-rules-against-louisiana-law-requiring-public-schools-to-display-ten-commandments-in-every-classroom