Louisiana May Display Ten Commandments in Public Classrooms

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Last week, the full U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 12-6 to allow Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms across the state. The per curiam ruling in Roake v. Brumley--issued by the court rather than authored by a single judge--lifts a lower court block on Louisiana’s 2024 Ten Commandments law (HB 71) that had passed overwhelmingly in the state’s legislature.

In the ruling, the Court acknowledged the religious significance and historical relevance of the Ten Commandments to U.S. legal traditions stating this dual nature prevents an outright categorial ban on their display.

“There can be no doubt that the Ten Commandments bear immense religious significance,” reads the ruling. “But they also ‘have historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system.’…That dual character forecloses any categorical rule against their display on public property.”

The Court also ruled that the lower court injunction was “premature” since the case hinges on yet unresolved questions about how the Ten Commandments will be presented in the classrooms. The questions involve just how prominent the displays will be, what additional historical documents will accompany them, and how teachers might reference them.

The majority stated there was not enough facts “to permit judicial judgment rather than speculation” since matters of the Establishment Clause and the First Amendment need “specific” facts to judge rightly.

Circuit Judge James Ho, who authored a concurring opinion, stated the idea of a passive Ten Commandments display is not coercive and therefore does not violate the Establishment Clause. He also reasoned that the nation’s history overwhelmingly favors religious material in education.

“Our Nation’s Founders didn’t just permit religion in education—they presumed that there would be religion in education. Indeed, our Founders firmly believed that our Constitution wouldn’t work without a religious people,” wrote Judge Ho.

With this history, Judge Ho concluded that displaying the Ten Commandments is “fully consistent with the Constitution.”

In June 2024, Louisiana became the first state to require all its public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. Gov. Jeff Landry signed the law which directs all public classrooms from kindergarten to state-funded colleges and universities to post the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” on a poster or framed document. 

The law states the purpose of these displays is to educate the public on “historically significant documents” that shaped both “American and Louisiana law.”

The outcome of Louisiana’s case will also affect a similar challenge to Texas’ 2025 Ten Commandments law, while Arkansas’ 2025 law is also blocked but is being appealed under the Eighth Circuit’s jurisdiction.

Recent Supreme Court precedents show that displaying the Ten Commandments is not necessarily a religious endorsement. In American Legion v. American Humanists Association, the High Court wrote that the Ten Commandments “have historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system” and represents a “common cultural heritage.” Then, in 2022, the cases of Shurtleff v. City of Boston and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District rejected and overruled the 1971 case of Lemon v. Kurtzman. The High Court replaced the “Lemon Test” by returning to a traditional First Amendment standard where courts must interpret the Establishment Clause by “reference to historical practices and understandings.”

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The Fifth Circuit has rightly ruled that the Ten Commandments can be displayed in public schools. Passive Ten Commandments displays do not compel religious exercise, so there is no Establishment Clause violation. The Decalogue is a universally recognized symbol of law and has indelibly shaped the Western Legal Tradition and American government. There are more than 50 displays of the Ten Commandments inside and outside the United States Supreme Court. The Ten Commandments are ubiquitous and their central role in law and government pre-date the U.S. Constitution and these displays honor its historical significance to our way of life.”

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