Appeals court panel rules against Louisiana Ten Commandments law
June 21 (UPI) -- Louisiana can not compel officials to display the Ten Commandments in public school and college classrooms, a federal appeals court has ruled.
"Parents and students challenge a statute requiring public schools to permanently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom in Louisiana. The district court found the statute facially unconstitutional and preliminarily enjoined its enforcement. We affirm," the appeals court panel said in its 50-page ruling issued this week.
The court ruled Louisiana's House Bill 71 violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, calling the requirement to display the Ten Commandments "plainly unconstitutional" while affirming a lower court ruling.
"The district court did not abuse its discretion by finding that Plaintiffs satisfied the preliminary injunction elements," the appeals court wrote, citing a similar law and subsequent ruling in Kentucky in the 1980s.
Last June, Gov. Jeff Landry, R-La., signed the bill, requiring that "each public school governing authority shall display the Ten Commandments in each classroom in each school under its jurisdiction."
The law went into effect on Jan. 1 of this year but was challenged by a group that included parents and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.
The appeals court panel agreed the law subjected students to "a state-preferred version of Christianity."
All but five of the state's school districts are required to follow the law while the legal process plays out. The five districts where the parent plaintiffs live have a temporary exemption.
"We believe that our children should receive their religious education a thome and within our communities, not from government officials," Rev. Darcy Roake, one of the plaintiffs in the case said in a statement following the ruling.
"We are grateful for this decision, which honors the religious diversity and religious-freedom rights of public school families across Louisiana," said Roake, who is a Unitarian Universalist Minister.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has indicated she will now seek appeal from the appeals court's full judge panel and could attempt to have the case heard in front of the Supreme Court of the United State.
"We strongly disagree with the Fifth Circuit's affirmance of an injunction preventing five Louisiana parishes from implementing HB71. We will immediately seek relief from the full Fifth Circuit and, if necessary, the United States Supreme Court," Murrill said in a statement.
"We will immediately seek relief from the full FIfth CIrcuit and, if necessary the United States Supreme Court."
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