Additional Coverage:
A Louisiana law that required schools to display the Ten Commandments was blocked by a federal judge. The judge ruled that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom.
A group of parents sued the state, arguing that the law forced their children to participate in a religious exercise. The judge agreed, stating that the law was “facially unconstitutional” and that it could not be enforced.
Louisiana’s Attorney General plans to appeal the ruling. The law had been part of the conservative agenda of Governor Jeff Landry, who has also taken steps to restrict abortion rights and reform criminal justice.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supported the parents’ lawsuit, arguing that public schools should not be used to promote religion. The ACLU also supported a similar lawsuit in Oklahoma, where a law requires the Bible to be part of school lessons and stocked in classrooms.
Experts testified against the Louisiana law, arguing that the Ten Commandments are not a core part of American government and that the Founding Fathers believed in the separation of church and state.
The state argued that the law was constitutional and that posters of the Ten Commandments could be designed to comply with the First Amendment. The judge rejected this argument, stating that there was no constitutional way to display the Ten Commandments in accordance with the law.