Ten Commandments law blocked in Louisiana

In a victory for a religious freedom coalition that includes the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction Nov. 12 prohibiting implementation of a Louisiana law requiring all public schools to permanently display a government-approved, Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

In the Rev. Roake v. Brumley ruling, Judge John W. DeGravelles determined that Louisiana’s HB 71, enacted in June, violates the First Amendment and longstanding Supreme Court precedent. More than 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court overturned a similar state statute, holding that the First Amendment bars public schools from posting such displays. The defendants conceded during oral argument that Stone remains good law and is binding on lower courts.

“We are pleased that the First Amendment rights of students and families are protected by this vital court decision,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott.

Represented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the plaintiffs in Roake v. Brumley are a multifaith group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools.

Because the court denied the defendants’ request to pause (or “stay”) the preliminary injunction while they seek relief from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it immediately takes effect.

In his 177-page opinion, Judge DeGravelles explained: “These displays must be posted in every ‘classroom in each school,’ all year round, regardless of subject matter, and regardless of the age of the student. Thus, the question is not whether the biblical laws can ever be put on a poster; the issue is whether, as a matter of law, there is any constitutional way to display the Ten Commandments in accordance with the minimum requirements of the act. In short, the court finds that there is not. First, Stone remains good law and is directly on point, and this court is bound to follow it. Second, even putting Stone aside . . . plaintiffs have adequately alleged that HB 71 fails to comply with the Establishment Clause analysis laid out in Kennedy and 5th Circuit precedent.”

The judge also recognized that HB 71 would lead to unconstitutional religious coercion of the children-plaintiffs in the case by imposing religious doctrine on them for nearly every hour of the school day, throughout their entire public school education. And, pointing to the testimony of plaintiffs’ expert, Dr. Steven K. Green, the court found that there is no historical support for permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms and that doing so would be at odds with our Founders’ understanding of the separation of church and state.

The court’s opinion concludes: “Each of the plaintiffs’ minor children will be forced ‘in every practical sense,’ through Louisiana’s required attendance policy, to be a ‘captive audience’ and to participate in a religious exercise: reading and considering a specific version of the Ten Commandments, one posted in every single classroom, for the entire school year, regardless of the age of the student or subject matter of the course. And, despite the differences among the plaintiffs’ religious beliefs (be they Unitarian Universalist, Reform Jewish, Presbyterian, or atheist/agnostic), the common threads are (1) that the required posting of the Decalogue conflicts with specific parts of their faith, and (2) that one of those articles of faith, shared by nearly all plaintiff parents, is raising their children in accordance with their own beliefs and values. Considering the totality of the circumstances, the court finds that the act and its requirements are coercive and inconsistent with the history of First Amendment and public education.”

The court further ruled that HB 71 also violates the plaintiffs’ rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.