A full federal appeals court has lifted an injunction blocking a Louisiana law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, saying it needs more information about how the measure will be implemented in practice before it can decide whether the law is constitutional.
“We do not know, for example, how prominently the displays will appear, what other materials might accompany them, or how—if at all—teachers will reference them during instruction,” said an 11-7 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans.
The 2024 Louisiana law requires displays of a specific Protestant version of the Ten Commandments, as well as a context statement purporting to explain the historical tradition for such displays. The law also dictates the size and font of the displays.
But it also allows additional content such as “the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance” to appear alongside the Commandments.
Without evidence about how the Commandments is displayed and used in classrooms, “we are not able to conduct the fact-intensive and context-specific analysis required by the Supreme Court’s Ten Commandments cases,” the majority said in an unsigned opinion on Feb. 20 in Roake v. Brumley.
Several dissents and one concurrence that would uphold La. law now
The decision sets aside a federal district judge’s 2024 injunction blocking the law statewide and suggesting that it was likely unconstitutional. The Louisiana law “is impermissible under Stone v. Graham,” the district judge said, referring to a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar Kentucky law that required displays of the Ten Commandments in schools.
The latest decision came about a month after the full 5th Circuit heard arguments over the injunction, in which a majority sounded sympathetic to the Louisiana law.
The full court heard arguments the same day over a similar Texas law requiring such displays. But the Texas law has been blocked in only a handful of school districts, not statewide, and many districts in that state have begun placing the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Also, the Texas law does not require or forbid any contextualizing statements or additional documents.
The 5th Circuit majority didn’t explain why it was lifting only the Louisiana injunction, but it may feel it is able to evaluate the context of such displays in Texas and will rule on the constitutionality of that state’s law.
Several judges wrote dissents. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez said the challenge of Louisiana residents who argue the law violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on government establishment of religion is “ripe” for review without the context demanded by the majority.
“Because [the Louisiana law] provides sufficient information about the mandatory classroom religious displays, and requires no other materials to be displayed, no additional factual development is required to determine the statute’s facial invalidity,” said Ramirez, an appointee of President Joe Biden.
One judge who joined the majority in lifting the injunction said in a concurrence that he would uphold the law now.
“The Louisiana Ten Commandments law is not just constitutional—it affirms our nation’s highest and most noble traditions,” said Judge James C. Ho, a first-term appointee of President Donald Trump.
Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill, a Republican, welcomed the court’s decision.
“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial,” she said in a statement. “My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally. Louisiana public schools should follow the law.”
Civil rights groups behind the lawsuit said the decision would require plaintiffs to file new “as applied” challenges to how the state law is carried out.
The 5th Circuit decision “is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,” said the statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “But this fight isn’t over.”
