Ten Commandments won’t be implemented in some Louisiana classrooms until November, due to lawsuit | World News

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana will not take official steps to enforce a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in all public school classrooms in the state until November while a lawsuit moves through the courts, according to an agreement approved Friday by a federal judge.

The lawsuit was filed in June by parents of Louisiana public school children from various religious backgrounds, who argued that the law violates provisions of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion and guarantees religious freedom.

Supporters of the law argue that the Ten Commandments belong in classrooms because the commandments are historic and part of the foundation of American law.

Louisiana law requires the commandments to be posted by Jan. 1, a deadline that is not affected by Friday’s agreement. The agreement ensures that the defendants in the lawsuit — state education officials and several local school boards — will not post the commandments in classrooms before Nov. 15, and will not make rules to implement the law before then.

Lester Duhe, a spokesman for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, said the defendants “have agreed not to take any public compliance measures until Nov. 15” to allow time for pleas, arguments and a sentencing.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the establishment of religion clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The Supreme Court ruled that the law had no secular purpose, but rather served a clearly religious purpose.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that such displays in two Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin.

Louisiana’s new law does not require school systems to spend public money on Ten Commandments posters. It allows the systems to accept donated posters or money to pay for the displays.

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