BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – Nine Louisiana families have filed a federal lawsuit against the state’s education department and local school boards, challenging a new law that mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The law, enacted last week, is seen by the plaintiffs as an unconstitutional pressure on students to engage in religious observance.
Reaction was swift. American Civil Liberties Union posted on X, “We’re challenging a new law in Louisiana that forces public schools to display a state-approved version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Public schools are not Sunday schools. Louisiana public schools must remain welcoming to all students, regardless of their faith.”
This legal action comes just days after Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill, making Louisiana the first state to require such displays in public schools since the Supreme Court declared similar mandates unconstitutional over 40 years ago. The lawsuit, also supported by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, argues that the law infringes on students’ religious freedom.
Governor Jeff Landry (R) of Louisiana [ via Office of the Governor]
The plaintiffs, who are from diverse religious backgrounds including Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and nonreligious, argue that the law violates their First Amendment rights. They contend that the law “pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture” and “sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments do not belong in their school community.”
State Seal of Louisiana
Among the plaintiffs are Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Darcy Roake and Rev. Jeff Simms, a Presbyterian. Simms criticized the law as religious favoritism, while Roake, who is raising her children in both the Jewish and Unitarian faiths, expressed concern over the promotion of a particular religion in public schools. Joshua Herlands, another plaintiff, voiced his dismay as an American and a Jew, stating that the law distorts the Jewish significance of the Ten Commandments and unfairly promotes one set of religious laws.
“It is our children’s right to decide what views to accept,” said Roake, a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church, whose husband is Jewish and also a plaintiff, during a conference call with reporters.
Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law (1659, oil on canvas) by Rembrandt. [public domain]
In both Christian and Jewish traditions, the Abrahamic God revealed the Ten Commandments to the Hebrew prophet Moses. Louisiana’s new law mandates a large, easy-to-read poster of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all classrooms, from kindergarten through public colleges. Additionally, the law requires a statement asserting that the Ten Commandments have been “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
The families are represented pro bono by the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Attorney Jonathan Youngwood has indicated that the case is moving forward, with a federal judge in Baton Rouge assigned to it and a hearing sought for this summer to prevent the law from being implemented.
Governor Landry, a conservative Republican, has stated that the state will defend the law against legal challenges, emphasizing the importance of the Ten Commandments.
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses,” Landry said when signing the law.
In addition to this law, Landry is expected to sign another controversial bill soon, one that prohibits discussions of gender identity or sexual orientation from kindergarten through 12th grade, modeled after Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Landry has the support of former president and presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has suggested that the entire country should adopt similar measures. Trump posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???”
“It‘s a clear violation of the 1st Amendment and its anti-establishment cause. And the well-established Supreme Court precedent interpreting that,” Attorney Sean Soboleski said to The Wild Hunt. “If the govt posts the 10 commandments then they also have to post every other religion’s tenet—e.g. 5 Pillars of Islam, 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism, The Satanic Principles- representatives of every religion, which they will never do.”
Legal experts and opponents of the law are watching closely, noting the current 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court, which includes justices who have shown a willingness to overturn precedents. This composition has given proponents of the law hope for a favorable ruling at the nation’s highest court.
Witch and lawyer Hecate Demetersdatte told The Wild Hunt, “The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits establishing any religion. Placing the commandments of any religion, and particularly commandments that say you may have no gods “before” the Christian god, clearly violates the First Amendment. But Louisiana is doing this because they expect the current corrupt Supreme Court to find a way around this. The only real solution is to vote blue up and down the ballot.”
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