[ad_1]
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana: Public classrooms in the state can now display posters of the Ten Commandments after a U.S. appeals court cleared the way for a Louisiana law that a lower court had earlier blocked.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-6 to lift a block that a lower court first placed on the law in 2024. The court said on February 20 that it was too early to make a judgment call on the law’s constitutionality.
The majority of judges said it is not yet clear how schools will show the religious text. They do not know how visible it will be, whether teachers will discuss the Ten Commandments in class, or whether other historical documents, such as the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence, will also be displayed.
Because these details are missing, the judges said they do not have enough facts to decide if the law breaks the First Amendment. In other words, they said there isn’t enough clear information for a proper legal decision, so they’re not just guessing.
However, six judges disagreed and wrote separate opinions. Some said the court should review the case now. Others said the law forces children to see government-supported religion in a place they are required to attend, which they believe clearly goes against the Constitution.
Judge James L. Dennis wrote that the law is precisely the kind of government support for religion that the Constitution’s framers sought to prevent.
This ruling followed the full court’s January hearing. Earlier, a three-judge panel had ruled that Louisiana’s similar law was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that is being challenged in federal court.
Texas’ law began on September 1. It is the biggest effort in the country to put the Ten Commandments in public schools. In some cases, federal judges temporarily stopped school districts from posting them. But in many classrooms across Texas, the posters have already been put up, either paid for by the districts or through donations.
These laws are part of efforts by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to bring religion into public school classrooms. Critics say this breaks the rule separating church and state. Supporters argue that the Ten Commandments are an important historical document and a foundational part of U.S. law.
Families from different religions — including Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism — as well as clergy members and nonreligious families, have challenged the laws.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar law in Kentucky violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which bars the government from establishing or supporting a religion. The court said the law had no nonreligious purpose and was clearly religious.
In 2005, the Supreme Court again ruled that Ten Commandments displays in two Kentucky courthouses were unconstitutional. However, in the same year, the court allowed a Ten Commandments monument to remain on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin.
[ad_2]