Louisiana’s Ten Commandments Class Requirements Enforcement Suspended

(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Louisiana’s new law requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments will not be publicly enforced or endorsed in any way until Nov. 15, 2024, a new court document reveals in the ongoing legal battle over the policy.

Both sides agreed that the Ten Commandments would not be posted in public school classrooms and that the defendants (including the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education) and the schools would not publicly implement the law until November.

Lester Duhe, a spokesman for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, clarified that the defendants “have agreed not to take any public compliance action until then” because this allows time for “briefing, oral arguments and a decision” prior to the January 2025 date by which schools must have the Ten Commandments in place.

The January demand remains in effect until the outcome of the lawsuit is known.

A multi-faith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools filed a lawsuit challenging the law, HB 71, which requires public schools—from kindergarten through college—to display the Ten Commandments, a religious set of rules from the Old Testament, in every classroom on “a poster or framed document at least 11 by 14 inches.”

By law, the posters would be paid for with private donations, not state money. It does not say what happens if a school does not comply.

The lawsuit argues that the law violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent. It cites the case of Stone v. Graham, in which the court struck down a similar state law. The court ruled that the separation of church and state prohibited public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

The nine families — who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious — also argue that the law constitutes religious coercion and violates their First Amendment rights: “By permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom — thereby making them unavoidable — students are unconstitutionally pressured to respect, revere, and adopt the state’s favorite religious scriptures,” the complaint states.

It continues: “It also sends the damaging and religiously divisive message that students who do not adhere to the Ten Commandments — or, more precisely, the specific version of the Ten Commandments that HB 71 requires schools to adhere to — do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing religious practices or beliefs that are inconsistent with the state’s religious affiliations.”

The law argues that the Ten Commandments are also historically significant and “reflect the understanding of our nation’s founders regarding the necessity of civic morality for functional self-government,” the text reads.

“If you want to respect the rule of law, you have to start with the original legislator, which is Moses,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said at a news conference where he signed a package of education bills.

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