Civil rights organizations, parents sue Louisiana over new Ten Commandments law in schools

A group of Louisiana parents and civil rights organizations are suing the state over its new law that requires all public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

A group of Louisiana parents and civil rights organizations are suing the state over its new law that requires all public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, contends that the legislation violates both US Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment. House Bill 71, signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry last week, mandates that by January 1, 2025, a poster-sized display of a state-approved version of the Ten Commandments with “large, easily readable font” be put in every classroom from kindergarten through the university-level at state-funded schools. It is currently the only state with the requirement. In the complaint, the plaintiffs argue that mandating the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom renders them “unavoidable” and “unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture.” “It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments—or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that H.B. 71 requires schools to display—do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices of beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences,” the complaint continues. The lawsuit is being brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, on behalf of nine “multi-faith families” with students enrolled in Louisiana public schools. The families involved in the lawsuit include parents who are “Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and non-religious,” according to the joint news release announcing the lawsuit.