Louisiana schools banned from posting Ten Commandments until judge rules on lawsuit

But while the law is tested in court, Louisiana must wait to install Bible signs in the five parishes where the plaintiffs’ children attend school, according to an agreement approved Friday by a federal judge.

In an order, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles of Louisiana’s Middle District scheduled a hearing for Sept. 30, with a ruling expected Nov. 15. Until then, the Ten Commandments cannot be posted in schools in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, St. Tammany and Vernon parishes. In addition, the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education may not issue “advice, rules or regulations regarding the proper implementation” of the new law until Nov. 15, the agreement states.

Under the new law, public K-12 schools and colleges must display the Ten Commandments — religious and ethical guidelines passed down to the prophet Moses in the Bible — on posters at least 11 inches by 14 inches in “large, easy-to-read type.” Schools must also post a three-paragraph statement explaining how the texts were “a prominent part of American public education” from the late 1600s to the late 1900s. The law gives schools until Jan. 1 to hang the Ten Commandments and requires them to use donated posters or spend donated money, rather than government funds, to purchase the displays.

Since the law passed overwhelmingly in the Republican-controlled state legislature, it has captured the attention of the nation and is the latest example of lawmakers working to blur the lines between church and state, a battle that is particularly raging in public schools.

Five days after Landry signed the law, on June 24, a coalition of advocacy groups including the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the state and national offices of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the case are nine Louisiana families of various faiths — including four clergy — who allege the law violates the language of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing religion and guarantees religious freedom.

“By permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom, thereby making them unavoidable, students are unconstitutionally pressured to respect, revere, and adopt the state’s favorite religious scriptures,” the lawsuit says, arguing that there is no longstanding tradition of posting the Commandments in classrooms and that courts have already ruled against the practice.

On July 8, the groups filed a motion for preliminary injunction, asking the court not to impose the law or allow any related enforcement of it during pending litigation. The move, said Rev. Darcy Roake, a plaintiff in the case, was intended to “ensure that our family’s rights to religious freedom are protected from day one of the upcoming school year.”

“The Ten Commandments required by state law create an unwelcoming and oppressive school environment for children like ours who do not believe in the official version of the state’s scriptures,” Darcy said in a statement this month. “We believe that no child should feel excluded from public school because of their family’s religious tradition.”

Under the agreement, only students in five Louisiana parishes will not see the Ten Commandments when they return to school next month.

The latest attempts to post the Ten Commandments in schools follow similar—though failed—efforts over the decades. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that a similar law in Kentucky violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the federal government from favoring one religion. Other proposals to post the Ten Commandments in schools have been introduced—but not become law—in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Yet recent Supreme Court rulings have been more lenient on religion in schools. In 2022, the court ruled in favor of a Washington State football coach who knelt at midfield to pray with student-athletes assisting him. The prayers were protected by the constitutional guarantees of free speech and exercise of religion, the court ruled.

The Louisiana law has already been praised by members of the religious right and has received the support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

At a rally of the evangelical Faith and Freedom Coalition, Trump endorsed the Ten Commandments, telling attendees, “Has anybody read ‘Thou shalt not steal’? I mean, has anybody read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible. They don’t want it to go up. It’s a crazy world.”

The bill was touted again at the Republican Party convention on Thursday, this time by Landry, who linked it to the attempted assassination of Trump.

“I would argue that if the Ten Commandments had been on (Thomas Matthew Crooks’) wall at the school he went to, he might not have shot the president,” Landry said in an interview with Nexstar, the Louisiana Illuminator reported.

Anumita Kaur and Michelle Boorstein contributed to this report.