A group of Louisiana parents of different faiths filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging Louisiana’s new law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, setting up a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for students’ rights and religious freedom.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed the law last week, making Louisiana the only state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public K-12 school and college classroom. He has welcomed a legal fight over the law, telling fellow Republicans at a recent fundraiser, "I can’t wait to be sued.”
The lawsuit alleges that the mandate runs roughshod over the U.S. Constitution, violating students’ right to be free from religious coercion in public school and parents' right to direct their children's upbringing. It also alleges that the law ignores a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a Kentucky law requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by several civil liberties groups, are asking a federal district court to declare the law unconstitutional and block it from taking effect.
"This new law doesn't just interfere with my and my children's religious freedom, it tramples on it," said Rev. Jeff Simms, a Presbyterian (U.S.A.) minister whose children attend public schools in St. Tammany Parish. "The separation of church and state means that families get to decide if, when and how their children should be introduced to religious Scripture and texts, not the state."
Proponents of the law, which Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed by a wide margin last month, say the Ten Commandments have educational value as a historical document and basis of Western law. At the same time, they argue that the rules will offer students moral guidance.
“Given all of the junk our children are exposed to in the classrooms today, it is imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back into its historic position,” said a statement from state Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, who sponsored the legislation. "We have every confidence that it will survive legal scrutiny."
The case will turn, in part, on whether the court finds that Louisiana's law violates the clause in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment that prohibits the government from "establishing" a religion, which courts have interpreted as promoting or favoring a particular faith tradition.
When Landry signed the bill, he referenced the Bible's account of God handing down the Ten Commandments to the prophet Moses.
“If you want to respect the rule of law,” he said, “you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.”
Conflicting rulings
In the statute, Act 676 of the 2024 Legislative Session, lawmakers referenced a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said a monument featuring the Ten Commandments could be displayed outside the Texas State Capitol alongside other historic markers. In a different ruling that same year, the Court said that a Ten Commandments display in two Kentucky courthouses was unconstitutional because the display's primary intent was religious.
The new lawsuit refers to an older 1980 court ruling, in which justices found that a Kentucky law requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional. The court relied on an earlier case, Lemon v. Kurtzman, that said a law must have a primarily secular purpose to avoid running afoul of the Constitution's establishment clause.
But in 2022, the court’s new conservative supermajority discarded the so-called Lemon test. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which upheld a football coach’s right to pray on the field, the court said the test of whether a law complies with the First Amendment is whether it’s consistent with the country's history and traditions.
"That's why we feel very strongly that this law will withstand any kind of constitutional scrutiny," said Matt Krause, an attorney at First Liberty Institute, a legal group that promotes religious freedom, "because there is such a history and tradition of the Ten Commandments in American law, education and culture."
However, groups challenging the law say the 2022 case involved the right of a school employee to personally practice his religion, not the authority of the government to mandate the display of a religious text. They also dispute the idea that posting the Ten Commandments in public schools is an American tradition.
"There is nothing historically American about forcing every public school student to observe one religion's holy laws," said Elizabeth Cavell, associate counsel with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs.
Some faith leaders have also taken issue with the version of the Ten Commandments stipulated in the law, noting that different religious groups interpret the text differently.
"These are not the Commandments as I and many Jews know them," said Joshua Herlands, a plaintiff who has children in New Orleans public schools. He said politicians should not try to indoctrinate students "with what they think is the right version of a particular piece of religious text."
What schools must do
Per Act 676, schools must display the Ten Commandments by Jan. 1 on posters that measure at least 11 by 14 inches and feature “large, easily readable font.” The law also dictates the wording that must be displayed, including "Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.”
Schools must also post a “context statement” alongside the Biblical text that says the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” Schools may, but are not required, to also display other historical texts, such as the Declaration of Independence.
The complaint was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The plaintiffs, all of whom have children in Louisiana public schools, identify as Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious.
They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as pro bono counsel.
The complaint names as defendants state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, members of the state board of education and several local school boards.
"I look forward to implementing the law," Brumley said in a statement, "and defending Louisiana’s sovereign interest to select classroom content fundamental to America’s foundation."