Louisiana asks judge to toss lawsuit against Ten Commandments law

By Piper Hutchinson

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Monday she will ask a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit parents have brought to stop a new state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom.

Murrill is expected to file a brief arguing the lawsuit is premature, as schools are not yet displaying the religious text. She argues that means the plaintiffs cannot yet show they are harmed. 

According to Article III of the U.S. Constitution, to bring a federal lawsuit, a plaintiff does not have to prove that they have been harmed if they can prove that harm is imminent. 

The plaintiffs in the case, who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious, assert the new law will violate their First Amendment rights.

“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom – rendering them unavoidable – unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” their lawsuit reads. 

The law, which the Legislature approved earlier this year and  Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law, requires a specific version of the Ten Commandments, one that’s popular among evangelical denominations, be posted prominently in every public K-12, college and university classroom.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Kentucky in 1980. 

Along the way, Republicans have argued they want the scripture in classrooms not for religious reasons but because they believe American law is based on the Ten Commandments, referring to Moses as the “original lawmaker.” 

The Ten Commandments are religious directives in the Bible’s Old Testament from the book of Exodus. Scholars disagree about when the commandments were written and by whom. Various versions of the text appear in different translations of the Bible and the Torah.

The rules come from the story of the Hebrew prophet Moses, a key figure in the Abrahamic religions who was said to have been given them by God after he led the Israelites, a religious and ethnic minority, from enslavement under an oppressive Egyptian pharaoh. 

When asked about the impacts of the law on members of religious minorities, Landry advised students not to look at the poster. 

“I think we’ve forgotten in this country that democracy actually means majority rule,” Landry said. 

Murrill revealed posters at Monday’s press conference that she believes comply with the new law and pass constitutional muster.

 Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stood among several examples of posters she argued would comply with the law and pass constitutional muster (Piper Hutchinson / Louisiana Illuminator)

One such poster displayed the Ten Commandments and an image of actor Charles Heston portraying Moses in the movie “The Ten Commandments” alongside a picture of Broadway actor/writer Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton in the hit musical “Hamilton,” over lyrics from a song in the musical, “The Ten Duel Commandments.” 

The song, which is sung right before Hamilton is shot and killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in the musical, gives advice for partaking in a flintlock pistol duel. The lyrics seem to violate one of the Biblical Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill.” 

Others posters feature pictures and quotes from figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Others depict memes and other references to the Ten Commandments in law, government and culture. 

Murrill noted her office is handling the litigation internally and is not paying an outside law firm to represent the state. 

Both Murrill and Landry have expressed that the displays could improve discipline in schools. 

Landry made headlines last month when he suggested that if the Ten Commandments were displayed in Thomas Crooks’ classroom, he may not have attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and seriously injuring two others. Secret Service agents returned fire, killing Crooks. 

Louisiana schools, except for those in a handful of districts where the law is temporarily blocked, have until Jan. 1, 2025, to post the Ten Commandments displays.

This article originally appeared in Louisiana Illuminator on August 5th, 2024

Photo credits: Piper Hutchinson

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Louisiana will face lawsuit over Ten Commandments school displays

By Greg LaRose

Four civil liberties groups will sue the state of Louisiana after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law Wednesday that calls for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in school classrooms. The new rule applies to any school that accepts state money, including colleges and universities.

The American Civil Liberties Union, its Louisiana chapter, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced they intend to file a lawsuit to block enforcement of House Bill 71. The measure, authored by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, requires the Ten Commandments be displayed in each classroom. The poster or framed document dimensions must be at least 11 inches by 14 inches.

Louisiana lawmakers want Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms

By Greg LaRose 

Louisiana public schools would be required to display the Ten Commandments under legislation that advanced Thursday from committee, despite a limited history of such displays passing muster with the U.S. Constitution.  

Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haugton, and Sen. Adam Bass, R-Bossier City, co-authors of House Bill 71, told members of the House Committee on Education they believe their proposed law would survive court challenges. 

Efforts to set similar requirements in other states have not succeeded, with lawmakers in Texas and South Carolina falling short last year. A comparable bill is under consideration in Arizona. The chief obstacle to such proposals has been the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits any law and government action from standing up an official state religion.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 has given new hope to those who want the Ten Commandments publicly displayed. In the case Kennedy v. Bremerton, justices ruled in favor of a Washington state high school football coach who was fired for praying at midfield and allowing students to join him after football games. Joseph Kennedy was reinstated after conservative justices prevailed in a 6-3 decision, saying the post game prayers do not amount to a school endorsement of Christianity. 

Mississippi attorney Ronald Hackenberg, who accompanied Bass and Horton at the committee meeting, said the Kennedy ruling benefited from justices disregarding standards that have been applied since the 1971 case Lemon v. Kurtzman. Known as the Lemon test, the principles are used to determine whether a law or government violates the First Amendment.

In the Kennedy case, the justices looked at the history of rulings regarding the Establishment Clause and interpreted the intent of the Constitution’s authors rather than rely on the Lemon test, Hackenberg said.

“Both Representative Horton and I believe it will withstand legal and judicial scrutiny, as well as this bill is the first of its kind since the fall of the Lemon law [sic]. We hope it will serve as an example to the rest of the country,” Bass said.

Hackenberg told the committee he was affiliated with the Pacific Justice Institute. The organization has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBTQ+ stances. Its founder, Brad Dacus, has claimed gay marriage leads to polygamy and incest, among other falsehoods. 

What is the Lemon test?

The U.S. Supreme Court has traditionally used a three-part test to determine whether a law or government agency oversteps the First Amendment’s prohibition against the establishment of a state religion. The standards, known as the Lemon test, say government can assist religion only if:

1. the primary purpose of the assistance is secular; 
2. the assistance must neither promote nor inhibit religion; and 
3. there is no excessive entanglement between church and state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana opposes House Bill 71. Its advocacy strategist A’Niya Robinson said in an interview that specifics of the Kennedy case aren’t applicable to the legislation being considered. The coach’s prayer after games fell outside his responsibilities as a school employee, and students weren’t required to participate, she explained.

The Horton-Bass proposal would place students, who are compelled to attend school, in a difficult position as a captive audience forced to consume Christian doctrine, according to Robinson. Public schools also offer students access to religious concepts and teachings through world religion and certain social studies courses, she said. In addition, books of faith are available at school libraries, and students are free to engage in religious activities through extracurricular groups.

“One of the things that the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they came up with the First Amendment was that religious freedom only flourishes if people have breathing room to decide what religious beliefs, if any, that they want to follow,” Robinson said.

The education committee voted 10-3 to send Horton’s bill to the full House. Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, cast one of the no votes, having questioned whether the Ten Commandments was representative of all faiths. Rep. Sylvia Taylor, D-Reserve, joined nine Republicans in support of the bill. 

This is Horton’s second foray into required displays linked to religion. Last year, she and Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, received approval for a bill to put “In God We Trust” signs in every classroom, and Gov. John Bel Edwards signed it into law.

Like that proposal, the Ten Commandments would have to be displayed on a poster or framed document that is at least 11 by 14 inches and “be printed in a large, easily readable font.”

The specific verbiage for displaying the commandments is spelled House Bill 71. It allows, but doesn’t require, schools and their management boards to spend their own money on the displays or accepted donated versions.

This article originally appeared in the Louisiana Illuminator on April 4th, 2024

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