A group of 18 state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief supporting Louisiana’s law to allow the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman led the coalition in filing the brief December 17 in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Earlier this year, Louisiana’s Legislature passed House Bill 71 requiring all public K-12 schools and state-funded universities to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry in June and was scheduled to go into effect by the start of 2025. But in November, U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles blocked the law from taking effect, saying the families that had sued to prevent it likely were correct in arguing it violated the First Amendment. Murrill appealed that decision to the Fifth Circuit.
Coleman
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“I’d like to thank Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman for leading this multi-state brief in support of our Ten Commandments law in Louisiana," Louisiana Attorney General Murrill said.
In a statement, Coleman’s office said the Ten Commandments have held historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system through the course of our nation’s history.
“The early legal code is even depicted in the U.S. Supreme Court and other prominent buildings in the nation’s capital,” Coleman’s office says. “Louisiana’s law acknowledges this history and allows a display that compares the Ten Commandments to other documents formative to contemporary American law, like Blackstone’s Commentaries and the Supreme Court’s Marbury v. Madison.”
Louisiana’s law also requires a three-paragraph “context statement” to be part of every display, which provides examples of the Ten Commandments being “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
“From our founding documents to the establishment of the rule of law in the United States, the Ten Commandments’ influence on American history is undeniable,” Coleman said. “I am proud to support Attorney General Liz Murrill and Louisiana in the effort to preserve our shared history and educate future generations.”
The coalition’s brief notes previous Supreme Court rulings about the issue, adding that “acknowledgements on public property of the role played by the Ten Commandments in our nation’s heritage are common throughout America.”
“In fact, the court noted that the Ten Commandments are displayed several places in its own building,” the brief states. “The Supreme Court’s building is no exception when compared to other government buildings in our nation’s capital. The Supreme Court later affirmed that (in previous cases) no member of the court thought that these depictions of the Ten Commandments are unconstitutional.”
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that posting the Ten Commandments in public schools was "plainly religious in nature" and in violation of the law. That decision in Stone v. Graham resulted from a Kentucky case where several parents sued the state Legislature for passing a bill that required the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom.
In its brief, the coalition says that precedent shouldn’t apply to this case because of the “context statement” required for the Louisiana law.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the lower court ruling blocking the Louisiana law from going into effect should serve as a “reality check for Louisiana lawmakers who want to use public schools to convert children to their preferred brand of Christianity.”
Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia joined Coleman in signing the brief.