The ACLU of Louisiana and other groups supporting the separation of church and state filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging a just-signed state law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all public-school classrooms.
Plaintiffs in the litigation filed June 24 in the Middle District of Louisiana include Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious individuals. The lawsuit was filed in the wake of Gov. Jeff Landry signing House Bill 71, which the plaintiffs contend violates legal precedent and the establishment clause and free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
“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,” the complaint states. “It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments … do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.”
In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Landry said he signed the measure into law to help strengthen ethics around the state.
“I believe this is a step in the right direction to restore morals and values for current and future generations in Louisiana,” the governor said.
Attorney General Liz Murrill’s Office indicated that it will defend the new law, just as it would defend any of Louisiana’s statutes.
“The attorney general’s job is to defend the law,” Lester Duhé, the attorney general’s press secretary, said in an email to the Louisiana Record. “She intends to do just that.”
Critics of the law say that a 40-year-old U.S. Supreme Court case, Stone v. Graham, overturned a similar state law, concluding that the separation of church and state prevents the posting of the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms.
Two Unitarian Universalist plaintiffs, Erin Hawley and David Hawley, argued that they should be allowed to instill morals in their children through positive concepts rather than biblical commandments.
“... We strongly believe that every person has the right to undertake a free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” they said in a prepared statement. “That cannot happen when the government forces scripture on people, especially children — who are at the beginning of their spiritual journeys.”
Another plaintiff, Joshua Herlands, objected to how the state is forcing the posting of a specific version of the Ten Commandments.
“These displays distort the Jewish significance of the Ten Commandments and send the troubling message to students that one set of religious laws is favored over all others,” Herlands said, adding that the law goes against her family’s practice of religious tolerance.
HB 71 mandates that schools display the Ten Commandments on a poster whose dimensions are, at a minimum, 11 inches by 14 inches.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit’s filing, contends that the law promotes the practice of specific religious beliefs.
“Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition,” the foundation said in a joint statement with other groups opposed to HB 71. “The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate, and it certainly should not be coercing students to submit day in and day out to unavoidable promotions of religious doctrine.”