BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – Civil liberties groups sued Monday to block Louisiana’s new law which requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms, a measure they consider unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include parents of Louisiana public school children from diverse religious backgrounds, who are represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the law firm of New York City. Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett.
“This exhibit sends a message to my children and other students that people from some religious backgrounds are superior to others,” said the Rev. Jeff Simms, a Presbyterian pastor who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and a father of three children in Louisiana public schools. . “This is religious favoritism.”
Under legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry last week, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to display a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments in “large, bold font.” easy read” next year.
Opponents argue that the law is a violation of separation of state and church and that the display will isolate students, especially those who are not Christians. Defenders say the measure is not just religious, but which has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “fundamental documents of our state and national government.”
Plaintiff Joshua Herlands has two young children in New Orleans public schools who, like their father, are Jewish. There are multiple versions of the Ten Commandments, and Herlands said the specific version required for classroom walls does not align with his version of faith. He fears the display will send a troubling message to his children and others that “they may be inferior in the eyes of the government.”
“Politicians have absolutely no right to impose their religious beliefs on my children or any children, or try to indoctrinate them with what they think is the correct version of a particular religious text,” Herlands said.
The lawsuit filed Monday seeks a court declaration that the new law, referred to in the suit as HB 71, violates provisions of the First Amendment that prohibit government establishment of religion and guarantee religious freedom. It also seeks an order prohibiting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
“The state’s primary interest in passing HB 71 was to impose religious beliefs on public school children, regardless of the harm to students and families,” the lawsuit says. “The bill’s primary sponsor and author, Representative Dodie Horton, proclaimed during debate on the bill that it ‘seeks to display God’s law in the classroom so that children see what He says is right and what that He says is wrong’”.
The defendants include State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, members of the state board of education and some local school boards.
Landry and Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill support the new law, and Murrill said she is eager to defend it. She issued a statement saying she could not comment directly on the lawsuit because she had not yet seen it.
“It appears that the ACLU only selectively cares about the First Amendment — it doesn’t mind when the Biden administration censors speech or arrests pro-life protesters, but it apparently will fight to prevent posters that discuss our own legal history,” Murrill said in a statement sent by email.
The Ten Commandments have long been at the center of court cases across the country.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, which says Congress may “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court concluded that the law did not have a secular purpose but served a clearly religious purpose.
In a more recent ruling, the Supreme Court held in 2005 that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courtrooms violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court maintained a marker of the Ten Commandments at the Texas State Capitol in Austin. There were 5-4 decisions, but the composition of the court changed, now with a 6-3 conservative majority.
While some people think this case could reach the level of the U.S. Supreme Court and test conservative members, plaintiffs’ lawyers say they think this is a clear case.
“We think this is already covered by clear Supreme Court precedent,” said Patrick Elliott, legal director at the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “We believe that under current law we would prevail and it would not be necessary for the Supreme Court to review it.”
Other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah, have attempted to pass requirements for schools to display the Ten Commandments. However, with threats of legal battles, no one has the mandate in place except Louisiana.
The posters in Louisiana, which will be accompanied by a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of the Public education for almost three centuries”, should be in force in classrooms by the beginning of 2025.
The controversial law comes during a new era of conservative leadership in Louisiana under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic governor John Bel Edwards in January. The Republican Party holds a supermajority in the Legislature and Republicans hold every elected office statewide, paving the way for lawmakers to promote a conservative agenda.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, appointed to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama.
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McGill reported from New Orleans.
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This story has been corrected to show that the plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It has also been corrected to show that the New York City law firm is Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, not Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett.
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