Opponents of religious intrusion into what should be a faith-neutral space have come out against Louisiana officials’ efforts to require Ten Commandments signs in every classroom from kindergarten to college, and both sides are confident they will prevail in a battle that could ultimately end up before the nation’s highest court.
It could be months, even years, before a final decision is made in a lawsuit filed this week by nine parents of Louisiana public school students to block the Ten Commandments from becoming mandatory. That timeline has to be appealing to Gov. Jeff Landry. I begged to be sued. The bill has sparked disagreements between the ultra-conservative caucus in Louisiana’s Legislature and the Freedom Caucus, whose members were most vocal in pushing for the bill’s approval.
The longer the litigation drags on, the more political gain they can make from it — all the while distracting from the fact that, taken at face value, religious doctrine has absolutely no bearing on better education or societal outcomes.
It’s not a risk-free gamble for hard-right Republicans who believe legal precedent is in their favor, but the unsettled nature of the heavily conservative U.S. Supreme Court makes the outcome uncertain. Vanished Roe v. Wade Also intervened Maintaining access to abortion pillsAmong the judges who handed down the ruling: Bump Stock Domestic abusers aren’t considered in mass shootings Losing access to firearms.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers also feel they have a good chance of winning.
“We are resisting in the strongest terms the egregious attempts by government authorities to tear down the wall of separation of church and state and use our public schools as a means to proselytize children to Christianity,” attorney Heather Weaver, who directs the ACLU’s program on religion and belief freedom, said in a conference call Monday.
Weaver is one of a group of lawyers representing the parents who filed the lawsuit in federal court. Litigation The lawsuit was filed Monday in Baton Rouge against state Superintendent of Public Instruction Cade Brumley and members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its Louisiana chapter, the American Coalition for Separation of Church and State, and the Foundation for Freedom from Religion.
Louisiana faces lawsuit over displaying Ten Commandments in schools
The supporters legislation The group that pushed for legislation requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in schools is pinning its hopes on a Supreme Court ruling two years ago. Kennedy v. BremertonConservative justices have ruled that a Washington State football coach was exercising his First Amendment rights when he led the team in prayer after a game.
Supporters of the new Ten Commandments law emphasize that the Kennedy decision does not rely on the standards that have been applied since the Supreme Court’s 1971 decision. Lemon vs. KurtzmanThis principle, known as the Lemon test, has been used to determine whether a policy violates the First Amendment’s separation of church and state clause, which prohibits any law or government act from officially establishing a state religion.
Instead, the conservative justices looked to the history of past cases regarding the separation of church and state clause to interpret the Constitution’s framers’ intent in Kennedy.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Ten Commandments lawsuit argue that a 1980 Supreme Court decision made the Lemon test irrelevant, boding well for the lawsuit. Stone v. Graham The Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments was unconstitutional. Patrick Elliott, an attorney for the Foundation for Freedom from Religion, said Kennedy opinion It cites multiple precedents that have increased restrictions on religion in public schools.
Weaver said coach Joseph Kennedy also did not formally schedule post-game prayers or require students to participate in them, a situation that is in stark contrast to Louisiana’s new Ten Commandments law.
“Kennedy was a very narrow decision,” she said. “Yes, it upheld the coach’s right to pray after a football game, but it emphasized that prayer is not binding on the audience. They weren’t in the classroom. Kids were walking around the classroom or doing other things.”
The Louisiana lawsuit Rourke v. BramleyThe case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge John DeGravells, a federal appointee by President Barack Obama to the Middle District Court of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. Lawyers for the plaintiffs plan to seek a halt to the implementation of the new state law before the next school year, which does not require schools to post Ten Commandments signs until Jan. 1.
Those advocating the installation of the Ten Commandments in Louisiana schools have offered no real explanation for the need other than that they believe it is the right thing to do. Their suggestions focus on morality and history, but offer no concrete path to how posting the Ten Commandments will lead to better student achievement or less crime. It’s hard for anyone to defend them when the finger of Christian nationalism is pointed at them.
As the legal battle continues, the state’s more pressing problems will likely continue to fester with less attention. Louisiana will continue to fall behind in education, the corrections system will take priority, and more important social services that actually get people out of difficult situations will be railed against by the same politicians who desperately want religion to be everywhere, as long as it aligns with their own beliefs.
In other words, if the classroom posters were allowed to go forward, they would do little to reinforce the tenet behind the Ten Commandments: to be the best person you can be. Instead, the message students would get from the intrusive, out-of-context 11 x 17 poster would be, “Because I said so, try harder.”
