An American judge declares Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law unconstitutional

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -A federal judge on Tuesday declared unconstitutional a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms in the southern state.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles said the law violated a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar law in Kentucky and violated the religious rights of people opposed to the demonstrations.

He also called the law “discriminatory and coercive,” saying Louisiana expects children to attend school at least 177 days a year, and that the displays would pressure them to adopt the state’s religious teachings.

“Each of plaintiffs’ minor children will, for all practical purposes, be forced, by Louisiana’s mandatory attendance policy, to be a ‘captivated audience,'” deGravelles, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote in a decision of 177 pages.

Nine families, including several clergy, with children in public schools filed the lawsuit five days later in federal court in Louisiana’s capital, Baton Rouge, seeking an injunction against the law.

The various claimants are either Unitarian Universalist, Jewish, Presbyterian, irreligious, or atheist.

Louisiana became the only U.S. state to require the display of the Ten Commandments when Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed the law on June 19. Schools had to comply by January 1, 2025 at the latest.

Landry’s office and the office of Attorney General Liz Murrill, also a Republican, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys for the families did not immediately respond to similar requests.

Louisiana’s law is part of a broader effort by conservative groups to make expressions of faith more prominent in society.

Some hope the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority will uphold such laws despite legal challenges.

The court in 2022 sided with a high school football coach in Washington state who claimed the constitutional right to pray with his players at the 50-yard line after games.

Judge deGravelles said Louisiana’s law under that decision was also unconstitutional because there was no “broader tradition” of using the Ten Commandments in public education.

Louisiana could appeal the judge’s decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, widely considered one of the most conservative federal appeals courts.

The case is Roake et al v. Brumley et al, US District Court, Middle District of Louisiana, No. 24-00517.

(Reporting by Joanthan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)