What happened
A federal judge in Baton Rouge Tuesday blocked Louisiana from ordering all public schools and universities in the state to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Louisiana in June became the first state to attempt such a requirement since 1980, when the Supreme Court struck down a similar Kentucky law, ruling it violated the First Amendment.
Who said what
U.S. District Judge John deGravelles agreed with a religiously mixed group of plaintiffs that Louisiana’s law, set to take effect Jan. 1, was unconstitutional. The law is “coercive to students, and, for all practical purposes, they cannot opt out of viewing the Ten Commandments,” he wrote in his ruling. There were “any number of ways” the state could “advance an alleged interest in educating students about the Ten Commandments that would be less burdensome.”
Louisiana leaders, including Gov. Jeff Landry (R), “defended the law, stating the displays can create teachable moments that show how the Ten Commandments played an important role in American history,” The Wall Street Journal said. Plaintiff Darcy Roake, a Unitarian Universalist minister married to a Jewish man, said that “as an interfaith family, we expect our children to receive their secular education in public school and their religious education at home and within our faith communities, not from government officials.”
What next?
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said the state would “immediately appeal” deGravelles’s ruling. The law’s supporters essentially “invited a lengthy legal fight,” The New York Times said, and they “expect a friendlier reception” from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, “considered to be one of the nation’s most conservative courts.” Some conservatives also “hope the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority would uphold such laws,” Reuters said.