Federal Judge Blocks Law Mandating Ten Commandments Displays in Louisiana Classrooms
A Louisiana law mandating that public school classrooms display posters of the Ten Commandments has been halted by a federal judge, who ruled that the law is “facially unconstitutional.”
The law, H.B. 71, was signed in June. It requires public school classrooms—regardless of grade level or subject matter—to display large posters of the document at least 11 inches by 14 inches and in a “large, easily readable font.” Supporters of the law argued that it didn’t violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, claiming that the displays were intended to educate students on the historical impact of the Ten Commandments, rather than religiously indoctrinate them. The law also banned taxpayer funds from going to support the posters, instead requiring schools to accept donations.
The law was almost immediately met with a legal challenge from parents who claimed that the mandate violated their ability to instill their preferred religious values in their children.
The law “unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” reads the suit, filed in June. “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
Article from Reason.com
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