Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate gets a swift ‘Thou shalt not’ from appeals court

A federal appeals court has firmly rejected a Louisiana law that required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled unanimously, supporting an earlier temporary block that had stopped the controversial H.B. 71 from taking effect. This decision was a major win for civil rights groups, which argued that the law violated the separation of church and state.

As reported by CBS News, the appeals court made it clear that Louisiana’s law is unconstitutional, pointing to the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A key part of the court’s reasoning was the Supreme Court’s 1980 ruling in Stone v. Graham, which struck down a similar Kentucky law. The Fifth Circuit emphasized that this earlier decision still applies and must be followed by lower courts. Because of this, the judges concluded that H.B. 71 was clearly unconstitutional under existing legal standards.

The Louisiana law in question required all public school classrooms to display a government-approved, Protestant version of the Ten Commandments. This rule applied to every classroom, no matter what subject was being taught. The court stressed that allowing these displays would cause permanent harm to the First Amendment rights of the families who sued since students would be forced to see these religious messages every day in school with no way to avoid them.

Ten Commandments will not be displayed in schools

While it seems silly that courts need to decide whether you can be forced into a religion, many forget religious persecution is a reason why our forefathers came to this continent. The courts were already having to decide if you have a legal right to protest without facing the military, so that’s the America we’re living in.

The lawsuit, Rev. Roake v. Brumley, was filed by nine Louisiana families from different religious backgrounds whose children attend public schools. This group argued that religious teaching should happen at home or in places of worship, not through government-required displays in schools. Their case reinforced a basic constitutional principle: public schools should be places where all students can learn, no matter their faith, and should not be used to push religious beliefs on students.

Louisiana became the first state in the country to pass such a law when Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed it in June 2024. The law said that every public school classroom, from kindergarten through college, had to show a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments in large, easy-to-read text.

The Fifth Circuit’s decision supports an earlier ruling from November 2024 by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles. Judge deGravelles had already declared the law unconstitutional and ordered state education officials not to enforce it, telling them to inform all local school districts of his decision. The fact that both the district court and the appeals court agreed on this issue strengthens the argument that Louisiana’s law is unconstitutional.

Civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, the ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, have long argued that laws like this violate the separation of church and state. They said forcing schools to display the Ten Commandments could make non-Christian students feel excluded.