BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana’s attorney general announced Monday that she is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the state’s new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom beginning Jan. 1.
The suit was filed in June by parents of Louisiana public school children from various religious backgrounds who claim the law violates the language of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing religion and guarantees religious freedom. Supporters of the law argue that it not only religious but that the Ten Commandments have historical significance for the foundation of American law.
As children in Louisiana prepare to return to school this month, state officials unveiled large-scale examples of posters displaying the Ten Commandments, which Attorney General Liz Murrill said are “constitutionally consistent with the law.” The Republican said she is not aware of any school districts that have begun implementing the mandate, as the posters “have not yet been produced.”
Murrill said the lawsuit filed, which was not immediately available, states that “the lawsuit is premature and the plaintiffs fail to prove that they actually suffered injuries.”
“That’s because they haven’t seen any screening and they certainly can’t claim that they’ve seen a screening of the Ten Commandments that violates their constitutional rights,” she added.
Murrill pointed to more than a dozen posters displayed at Monday’s press conference to support her argument that the exhibits are constitutionally feasible. Some of the posters featured quotes or images from famous figures — the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martin Luther King Jr., Moses and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.
No matter how the poster looked, the main focus was the Ten Commandments. In addition, each display, in small print at the bottom, included a “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public opinion” education for almost three centuries.”
Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed the legislation in June, making Louisiana the only state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in the classrooms of all public schools and state-funded universities. The measure was part of a series of conservative priorities that became law this year in Louisiana.
When asked what he would say to parents who are upset about the Ten Commandments hanging in their child’s classroom, the governor replied, “If those posters are hanging in school and they (the parents) find them so vulgar, just tell the child not to look at them.”
In an agreement reached between the court and the state last monthThe five schools specifically named in the lawsuit will not post the commandments in classrooms until Nov. 15 and will not create rules to implement the law before then. The Jan. 1, 2025, deadline to comply remains in effect for schools across the state.
Louisiana’s new law does not require school systems to spend public money on Ten Commandments posters. It does allow systems to accept donated posters or money to pay for the displays. Questions remain about how the requirement will be enforced and what happens if there aren’t enough donations to fund the mandate.