5th Circuit upholds Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appellate court has cleared the way for displays of the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom, removing an order that stopped state officials from enforcing a law that requires them. 

In a decision issued Friday from its full roster of 18 judges, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a June decision from a three-judge panel that determined the 2024 state law was “plainly unconstitutional” and upheld a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law. Friday’s ruling lifts that injunction and allows the state to mandate all schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.” 

Five judges on the 5th Circuit dissented with the unsigned majority opinion that placed emphasis on not knowing exact details of what the displays would look like once placed in classrooms. Attorney General Liz Murrill has provided examples and guidance for displays to follow the law, but local school districts have authority to determine what they look like.

Without any context, appellate judges said in the opinion they were unwilling to rule based on conjecture. 

“It would oblige us to hypothesize an open-ended range of possible classroom displays and then assess each under a context-sensitive standard that depends on facts not yet developed and, indeed, not yet knowable,” the opinion reads. “That exercise exceeds the judicial function. guessing.”

The ruling stops short of declaring Louisiana’s law constitutional or saying it doesn’t violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment that prohibits a state-sanctioned religion.

However, in a concurring opinion, Judge James Ho, a federal court appointee of President Donald Trump in 2018, went further than the other judges in the majority. 

“In sum, the Louisiana Ten Commandments law is not just constitutional — it affirms our Nation’s highest and most noble traditions,” Ho wrote.

Murrill issued a statement in response to the 5th Circuit ruling. Benjamin Aguiñaga, the state’s solicitor general, has argued the case before the 5th Circuit.  

“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial,” she said. “My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally. Louisiana public schools should follow the law,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill.

The ACLU of Louisiana, which was among the groups representing plaintiffs in the case, is “exploring all legal pathways forward to continue the fight against this unconstitutional law,” executive director Alanah Odoms said in a statement through a spokesman.

The plaintiffs in the case, Roarke v. Brumley, are nine families who have children in public schools in five parishes — East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, St. Tammany and Vernon. Their views range from secular to religious, including Catholic, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Jewish and other faiths. They have argued the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments the legislature adopted for the classroom displays differs from the versions they follow.

Along with the ACLU, Americans United and the Freedom from Religion Foundation represented the plaintiffs and issued a joint statement in response to the 5th Circuit decision.

“Today’s ruling is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,” the statement reads. “Longstanding judicial precedent makes clear that our clients need not submit to the very harms they are seeking to prevent before taking legal action to protect their rights. But this fight isn’t over. We will continue fighting for the religious freedom of Louisiana’s families.”

SC bill would require Ten Commandments in every classroom. A Louisiana law is already in court.

The attorney general worked with Becket Law, a Washington, D.C., firm specializing in “religious liberty” cases. Senior counsel Joseph Davis, who represented Louisiana in the case, slammed the plaintiffs’ attorneys in a statement after the ruling was issued.  

“If the ACLU had its way, every trace of religion would be scrubbed from the fabric of our public life,” Davis said. “That position is at odds with our nation’s traditions and our Constitution. We’re glad the Fifth Circuit has allowed Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in its public school classrooms. America has a time-honored tradition of recognizing faith in the public square.”

Fifth Circuit Judge James Dennis, a federal court appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote a dissenting opinion and was joined by Judges Dana Douglas (Biden), James Graves Jr. (Obama), Stephen Higginsson (Obama) and Irma Ramirez (Obama).  

Dennis argued that his prevailing colleagues on the 5th Circuit chose to “evade” precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court that determined the Ten Commandments aren’t allowed under the Establishment Clause. Chief among them is the 1980 ruling in Stone v. Graham, a case from Kentucky in which justices said a state law calling for Ten Commandments displays in classrooms was unconstitutional.  

Also problematic for Dennis was the state’s argument that the commandments have a place in the classroom because of their historical significance.  

“Louisiana claims its Legislature had a valid secular purpose: to promote understanding of the Ten Commandments as part of the state’s historical and educational tradition,” Dennis wrote. ”Courts are normally deferential to such legislative purposes, but the purpose must be sincere, not a sham.”

When the 5th Circuit heard arguments in Roarke last month, its judges also considered a Texas case from families challenging its state law requiring Ten Commandments displays in schools. A federal judge ruled it was unconstitutional and stopped the law from taking effect. Attorney General Ken Paxton asked for his appeal to be tied to the Louisiana case. 

Attorneys for the plaintiffs noted Friday’s ruling does not address the Texas law.

Other conservative-led states have followed with their own efforts to approve laws similar to the one in Louisiana, where Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said shortly after he signed the measure in 2024 that he hoped it would be challenged in court.

A federal judge temporarily blocked a comparable law in Arkansas in August, and schools were ordered to remove Ten Commandments displays from classrooms while the case plays out.  

Other states with classroom Ten Commandments proposals under consideration include South Carolina and Tennessee. Similar bills have failed to advance this year in Mississippi and Indiana.

This story was originally produced by Louisiana Illuminator, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes SC Daily Gazette, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.