State Attorney General Liz Murrill on Friday offered public school districts in the state four sample Ten Commandments displays to comply with the provisions of House Bill 71, which civil rights groups have challenged in federal courts as unconstitutional.
“As I have repeatedly said, HB 71 is plainly constitutional because there are constitutionally sound ways to implement it,” Murrill said in a prepared statement. “My guidance letter explains as much and includes four specific displays, as well as a draft resolution that schools may use to adopt this guidance.”
But a spokesperson for the ACLU of Louisiana called the guidance misleading. In a previous news release, the ACLU and three other civil rights groups warned Louisiana school districts not to carry out the terms of HB 71, which requires the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. Districts could face litigation if they do so, the ACLU of Louisiana said.
“The federal district court held that this law is unconstitutional in any application,” the ACLU spokesperson told the Louisiana Record in an email. “Indeed, three of the four posters that the attorney general advises schools to display are nearly identical to sample posters already included in the litigation and rejected because there is no way to apply the statute without violating the First Amendment.”
All school boards are bound to respect the rights of Louisiana parents to determine how they wish to teach their children about religion, according to the statement. The version of the Ten Commandments mandated in the state law differs in some respects with the versions favored by those with different religious views, the federal lawsuit challenging HR 71 argues.
“The AG’s advice is unsound and will no doubt open school boards up to litigation,” the ACLU spokesperson said.
The attorney general, however, said her office would represent any school that is subsequently sued for applying her guidance.
Murrill’s guidance comes in the wake of decisions by the federal court in the Middle District of Louisiana and the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
“... HB 71 requires public school governing authorities to display (by Jan. 1, 2025) the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom – subject to certain minimum requirements – with ‘the nature of the display’ to be ‘determined by each governing authority,’” the attorney general’s guidance to school districts says.
Murrill acknowledges that five school districts – East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, St. Tammany and Vernon – are barred from complying with the state law as a result of the federal litigation advanced by plaintiffs represented by the ACLU of Louisiana and other civil rights groups. But other districts are not so restricted, she argued.
“... That injunction does not govern the remainder of our parish school boards, as well as all other public schools, all of which remain obligated to comply with HB 71,” the attorney general’s guidance says.
Murrill’s office provided four sample displays school classrooms can use to comply with the state law. One of them, titled “The House of Representatives & the Lawgivers,” contains the Ten Commandments beside images of Moses and Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Another is titled “The Supreme Court & the Lawgivers,” which contains quotes from English jurist William Blackstone and Supreme Court Justice John Marshall.
Other samples put the Commandments in juxtaposition with “Religion’s Role in American Public Education” and the “Religion Clauses of the Constitution.”