Jonathan Stepel
(Reuters) -The Federal Court of Appeal on Friday blocked Louisiana to apply a law that requires the display of ten orders in all classrooms of public public schools and universities.
Calling the law “apparently unconstitutional”, the three-member panel of the 5th Court of Appeal in the United States in New Orleans unanimously upheld a November 2024 decision by a lower court, which took advantage of the implementation of the law.
This is a victory for parents and students who accused Louisiana of trampling in their religious rights, and defeat for Republicans and conservative groups who are trying to make the expressions of faith more known in society.
The Court of Appeal is widely considered among the most conservative in the country, although two judges on Friday the group were appointed by democratic presidents.
According to the published reports, the Prosecutor General of Louisiana, Liz Muriel, will request the full court of appeal, and perhaps ultimately the US Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to review the case.
Murill’s service did not immediately answer requests for comment.
Nine families, including several clergymen, with children in public schools, they claim to block the law, stating that this violates the ban on the first amendment to the state creation of religion.
“We are grateful for this decision, which honors the religious diversity and the rights of the religious free number of families of public schools in Louisiana,” said Darcy Rowke, Unitarian Minister of the Universalist, who with her husband Jewish Adrian van Young is among the plaintiffs.
Louisiana’s law requires displaying posters or framed versions of the ten orders, which are at least 11 inches per 14 inches, the orders being the “central focus” and printed in a large, easy-to-read font.
The law signed by Republican governor Jeff Landry covered the K-12 schools and the state-funded colleges and had to come into force on January 1.
Kentki precedent
On Friday’s decision, Judge Irma Carrilo Ramirez quoted a 1980 Supreme Court decision, Stone against Graham, which annulled a law in Kentucky, requiring similar manifestations of the ten orders, as there was no “secular legislative purpose”.
Louisiana said the stone decision no longer applied because it relies on a precedent, that the Supreme Court had refused.
He also said that even if Stone applied, Louisiana’s work differs as schools can show the ten orders with documents such as the Declaration of Independence, reflecting a secular “historical and educational” purpose.
Ramirez, appointed Democratic President Joe Biden, nevertheless quoted several legislators who have expressed justifications based on religion for Louisiana’s law. They include that the ten commandments are “God’s law” and that opponents lead an “attack” on Christianity.
“If the published copies of the ten commandments will have any effect at all, it will be to make students read, meditate, may worship and obey, commandments,” Ramirez wrote, citing Stone’s decision. “This is not an admissible purpose of the state.”
Ramirez also rejected Louisiana’s argument that the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 in favor of the Washington football coach, who prays with players on the 50 yard line after the matches demanded compliance with the Ten Commandments.
She said this is partly, as the Washington case is mainly referring to the first amendment regulations, regulating free speech and the free exercise of religion.
Louisiana was the first country of the United States to display the ten commandments as the Kentucky Law was overthrown.
The case is Roake et al v brumley et al, the 5th Court of Appeal of the United States, No. 24-30706.
(Report from Jonathan Stepel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)