Louisiana education officials sued to prevent Ten Commandments from being displayed in classrooms

Dr. Cade Brumley

Motions were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana on June 24, seeking an injunction and a declaration that House Bill 71 violates the “Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Thirteen named plaintiffs (including three religious leaders, ten parents and their school-aged children) named Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, all members of BESE, and five school boards as defendants. House Bill 71 requires public schools to post a state-approved version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, which the complaint says is unconstitutional.

Paragraphs 1 to 5 set out the complainants’ position:

Under Louisiana law requiring parents to send their minor children to school, more than 680,000 students are enrolled in more than 1,300 public elementary and secondary schools across the state. These children and their families adhere to a wide range of faiths, and many practice no religion at all. However, under House Bill 71, Act 676 (“HB 71” or the “Act”), which requires public schools to display a state-approved version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, all of these students will be forcibly subjected to the precepts of Scripture, day in and day out, including: “I am the Lord your God”; “You shall have no other gods before me”; “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”; “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”; and “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you.” This simply cannot be reconciled with the fundamental principles of religious freedom that animated the founding of our nation.

There is no long-standing tradition of permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms in Louisiana or in the United States generally. In fact, for nearly half a century, it has been well established that the First Amendment prohibits public schools from displaying the Ten Commandments in this manner. See Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) (overturning Kentucky law requiring a version of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms). Accordingly, no federal court has upheld the display of the Ten Commandments.
Commandments of a public school.

HB 71 violates this binding precedent as well as the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom—making them inescapable—puts unconstitutional pressure on students to observe, revere, and embrace the state’s preferred religious scriptures. It also sends a harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not adhere to the Ten Commandments—or, more specifically, the specific version of the Ten Commandments that HB 71 requires schools to display—do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any religious practice or belief that does not align with the state’s religious preferences. And it severely impedes and limits the right of parents to direct their children’s religious education and teaching.

The state’s primary goal in passing HB 71 was to impose religious beliefs on children in public schools, with little regard for the harm it would cause to students and families. The bill’s lead sponsor and author, Rep. Dodie Horton, said during debate on the bill that it “seeks to bring God’s law into the classroom so that children can see what He says is right and what He says is wrong.”

For these reasons, Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that the Act is unconstitutional and a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent Defendants from (i) implementing rules and regulations in accordance with the Act, (ii) otherwise seeking to enforce the Act, and (iii) displaying the Ten Commandments in any public school classroom.

The plaintiffs attack the legislative process under which the bill was passed, alleging, among other things, false statements in favor of the historicity of the Ten Commandments at the founding of the United States.

The law includes false statements regarding an alleged history and connection between the Ten Commandments and government and public education in the United States.

For example, in Section 1(A)(4) of HB 71, the law states that “James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America, declared that ‘we have staked the entire future of our new nation…on the ability of each of us to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.'”

In fact, this quote is made up. Madison never said this in any of his public or private writings, nor in any of his speeches.

There is no long-standing tradition of permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms in Louisiana or the United States generally.

“As is evident from the nature of the mandatory postings themselves, the history of HB 71, and comments made by various legislators, the state’s primary interest in enacting and implementing HB 71 is the imposition of religious beliefs on public school children,” the plaintiffs argue. “HB 71 is not religion-neutral. By design, it expressly requires the posting of religious scripture—the Ten Commandments—in every public school classroom, and it requires that a specific, state-approved version of that scripture be posted that takes sides on theological issues regarding the proper content and meaning of the Decalogue.”

Many people in Louisiana are not religious and do not adhere to the religious principles set forth in any version of the Ten Commandments, including the one imposed by HB 71.

Even for religious traditions that consider the Ten Commandments authoritative and important, there are many different versions, depending on the religious denomination or Bible translation.

A summary of the various complainants who claimed to have suffered harm:

On behalf of themselves and their children, Plaintiffs oppose and resent HB 71 because the classroom religious exhibits mandated by the law will promote and force their children to religious scriptures in a manner that violates the family’s religious beliefs and practices. In doing so, the exhibits will coerce children into religion and usurp Plaintiffs’ parental role in directing their children’s religious education, religious values, and religious upbringing.

NOTE: We will receive the defendants’ response as soon as it becomes available.