By Charles J. Russo
Do the Ten Commandments have a valid place in U.S. classrooms? Louisiana’s Legislature and governor insist the answer is “yes.” But on Nov. 12, 2024, a federal judge said “no.”
U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles blocked the state’s controversial House Bill 71, which Gov. Jeff Landry had signed into law on June 19, 2024. The measure would have required all schools that receive public funding to post a specific version of the commandments, similar to the King James translation of the Bible used in many, but not all, Protestant churches. It is not the same version used by Catholics or Jews.
Officials were also supposed to post a context statement highlighting the role of the Ten Commandments in American history and could display the Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a federal enactment to settle the frontier – and the earliest congressional document encouraging the creation of schools.
The law’s defenders argued that its purpose was not only religious, but historical. Judge deGravelles, though, firmly rejected that argument, striking down HB 71 as “unconstitutional on its face and in all applications.” The law had an “overtly religious” purpose, he wrote, in violation of the First Amendment, according to which “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Regardless of the Ten Commandments’ impact on civil law, there was a clear religious intent behind Louisiana’s law. During debate over its passage, for example, the bill’s author, state Rep. Dodie Horton said, “I’m not concerned with an atheist. I’m not concerned with a Muslim. I’m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God’s law is.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has said she intends to appeal the judge’s ruling.
As someone who teaches and researches law around religion and education, with an eye toward defending religious freedom, I believe this is an important test case at a time when the Supreme Court’s thinking on religion and public education is becoming more religion-friendly – perhaps the most it has ever been.
How SCOTUS has ruled before
Litigation over the Ten Commandments is not new. More than 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court rejected a Kentucky statute that mandated displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The court reasoned that the underlying law violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” – because the mandate lacked a secular purpose.
The justices were not persuaded by a small notation on posters that described the Ten Commandments as the “fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States.”
Twenty-five years later, the Supreme Court again took up cases challenging public displays of the Ten Commandments, although not in schools. This time, the justices reached mixed results.
The first arose in Kentucky where officials had erected a county courthouse display of texts including the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and a biblical citation. In a 2005 ruling in McCreary County, Kentucky v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky the five-member majority agreed that the display of the Ten Commandments violated the establishment clause, largely because it lacked a secular legislative purpose.
On the same day, though, the Supreme Court reached the opposite result in Van Orden v. Perry, a case from Texas. The court upheld the constitutionality of a display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol as one of 17 monuments and 21 historical markers commemorating Texas’ history.
Unlike the fairly new display in Kentucky, the one in Texas, which had existed since the early 1960s, was erected using private funds. The court permitted the Ten Commandments to remain because, despite their religious significance, the Texas monument was a more passive display, not posted on the courthouse door.
AP Photo/Harry Cabluck
Louisiana’s law
Louisiana’s law would have required public school officials to display framed copies of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. Posters were supposed to be at least 11-by-14 inches and printed with a large, easily readable font. The legislation would have allowed, but did not require, officials to use state funds to purchase these posters. Displays could also be received as donations or purchased with gifted funds.
The bill’s author, Horton, previously sponsored Louisiana’s law mandating that “In God We Trust” be posted in public school classrooms.
In defending the Ten Commandments proposal, Horton said it honors the country’s origins.
“The Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana,” she told fellow lawmakers, “and given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it’s imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position.”
Justifying the bill, Horton pointed to Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 Supreme Court decision. Here, the justices held that educational officials could not prevent a football coach from praying on the field at the end of games because he engaged in personal religious observance protected by the First Amendment.
“The landscape has changed,” she said.
New frontier
Indeed it has.
For decades, the Supreme Court used a three-part measure called the Lemon v. Kurtzman test to assess whether a government action violated the establishment clause. Under this test, when a government action or policy intersects with religion, it had to meet three criteria. A policy had to have a secular legislative purpose; its principal or primary effect could neither advance nor inhibit religion; and it could not result in excessive entanglement between state and religious officials.
Another test the Supreme Court sometimes applied, stemming from Lynch v. Donnelly in 1984, invalidated governmental actions appearing to endorse religion.
The majority of the current court, though, abandoned both the Lemon and endorsement tests in Kennedy v. Bremerton. Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’” He added that the court “long ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot.”
What that new historical practices and understandings standard means remains to be seen.
More than 80 years ago, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette the Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 opinion that students cannot be compelled to salute the American flag, which includes reciting the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, if doing so goes against their religious beliefs. While H.B. 71 does not require students to recite the Ten Commandments, they would be constantly exposed to its presence in their classrooms, reducing them to what the judge described as a “captive audience” – violating their parents’ rights to the free exercise of religion.
In 1962’s Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court’s first case on prayer in public schools, the majority observed that “the Founders of our Constitution [recognized] that religion is too personal, too sacred, too holy,” to permit civil authorities to impose particular beliefs. I see no reason to abandon that view.
Charles J. Russo is Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law at the University of Dayton.
Gary Kunnas says
Another liberal judge that should burn in hell !!!!
Sherry says
@gary. . . what a hate filled comment! How very Christian of you.
Ray W, says
Hello Gary Kunnas.
Your comment prompted a sense of wonder about whether you knew what you were talking about. As it turns out, you may very well be clueless.
Judge John W. Gravelles’ parents, Charles and Virginia, were prominent Louisiana Republicans. In 1968, they served as Republican National Committee members at the same time, when he was 19.
His twin brother is an Episcopalian archbishop.
Graduating from law school in 1974, he went to work with a major Louisiana law firm, making partner in 1976. He went into private practice in 1986 before forming his own law firm with three partners. It seems his specialty was maritime law, and he has taught that subject matter all over the world.
President Obama nominated him for a federal judicial position in 2014; he was confirmed by a 100-0 Senate vote. Let’s repeat that number: 100-0. That means every last Republican Senator voted to confirm him.
Please, Gary Kunnas, stop presenting yourself to everyone as an uninformed person. It does you no good. You are not just wrong in your ignorance. You are wronger than wrong.
A judge observing the dictates of the rule of law as it exists today can never be described as doing a bad thing.
Joseph Barand says
What needs to be burnt are all the Churches that support, condone and educate the brain dead, racist, bigoted and Pedifiles who are running the country into the ground. The Prosperity Ministers, mostly Pedefiles like Baker, Robertson, Graham, Roberts, etc. have brain washed to many people while fleecing them of their money, integrity and morals.
Maryanne says
We need the 10 commandments in the classrooms and in many other places. PUT IT BACK
Sherry says
@maryanne. . . there is a distinct reason for the separation of church and state. No religion should be ruling our government. If you voted for a “Convicted Felon”, “Sexual Abuser” to be our President. Just how does that square with the 10 commandments you hold so dear?
Tony Mack says
Some folks need to study derivation of the Constitution and the beliefs of the so-called Founding Fathers.
God, Jesus Christ, and Christianity are not stated once in all of the Constitution, and it is clearly done so on purpose. The Constitution even bars all laws from “respecting an establishment of religion,” while also protecting “the free exercise thereof.”
This is not a “Christian” nation despite the propaganda from the likes of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. It never was and, hopefully, it never will be.
The dude says
Why?
Our newly elected president has openly and publicly broken most of them. Yet MAGA voted for him anyway.
Now, why should they be posted anywhere and everywhere? To what end?
To use as bingo cards for some sort of sick, twisted version of “MAGA Broken Commandments Bingo” ???
Justbob says
The Constitution 1… Christian Nationalism 0.
Pogo says
@Justbob
Well said.
Moreover, that’s the way to reply to the snake handlers, owners of the complete “Left Behind” series, and the rest of the pitiful dupes — and angry, homicidal Christian jihadists — that troll social media. Giving them individual attention (Google Pavlov for the scientific explanation) just gives the butt plug pressed against their brains a caress.
Praise the Lord — pleasure awaits, or not.
joe says
Amen! And I am a Christian, though do not have children. If I did, their spiritual training would be MY responsibility, not the school’s.
This is also a theological issue also – the 10 Commandments are part of the Mosaic Law given by Moses at Mount Sinai to Israelites thousands of years ago. They are meant to show mankind how far short of perfection we fall, not as a standard to “live up to”. Of course, we should not kill, etc…but these laws were called “the ministry of condemnation and death” in the New Testament (see Paul’s writings)-
There is more that can be said, but a mentor of mine once said that if these commandments “didn’t work for Israelites, what makes us think they will work for American teenagers in the 21st Century”?
For fellow Christians, please watch your attitude toward those who do not believe as you do – the Apostle Paul also wrote (speaking to Jews in his day)- “…because of you, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles”.
Skibum says
I’ve been a church going Christian all my life, and I strongly agree with the court ruling that prohibits putting the 10 Commandments in every school classroom. Will every classroom also need to have a Jewish Tora? How about prayer rugs so Muslim Americans can pray several times during the school day? If you’re not willing to respect what the Constitution says about freedom of religion, which also includes personal freedom FROM religion, then you do not really believe in our nation’s Constitutional freedoms at all. Church beliefs have no more business being in classrooms than do biology textbooks being forced into church sanctuaries. And if Trump is a proponent of putting the 10 Commandments in our school classrooms, then it is way past time for HIM to be reviewing his daily reminder of what those commandments are and what they say, so I think it is much more appropriate for US to tell HIM to post the 10 Commandments on his bedroom mirror in all of his gaudy mansions instead of worrying about classrooms where children already know much more about righteousness, ethics and morality than he has shown his entire life!
BrentJ says
What really gets me about the far-right Christian Nationalists is that they think a poster or sign or even the Bible itself is some kind of magic talisman that will instantly bring God ‘back’. As if, without the sign in the room, God just left and turned away from everyone who enters the place. But frame and hang some words up and – poof – instant morality, good behavior, and teachers and students are all straight.
Skibum says
You are right, of course, that those who have such a fascination for a sign or plaque that others should view to somehow correct their attitude and behavior are probably the same ones who go to church just to put on an air of religiosity because it is more important to them to be seen in church, to say all the right things around all the right people, and being superficially “Christian” as a show to those they wish to impress or be superior in some assumed way. I steer clear of anyone who has a need to flout their version of “Christianity” like it is a flashy type of clothing… nice to look at but so very superficial. Unfortunately, that is what many of our very conservative, mainstream so-called Christian nationalist churches have devolved into. We would be much better off as a society if these same people would simply LIVE what the 10 Commandments stand for without all the condescending pseudo-Christian put downs of others who don’t live their lives or believe the same way.
BrentJ says
Can any attorneys or para-legals help me understand how LA is allowed to pass a law in 2024 when SCOTUS already ruled on this in the 80’s. For example, can a state just pass a law stating that a president does not actually have immunity for anything occurring in our state? FFS no wonder there is no confidence in our democracy anymore.
The dude says
Different SCOTUS. They expect different outcomes. They probably aren’t wrong.
Atwp says
Why are people talking about the display of the Ten Commandments? Some people are upset about the ruling. Read the Ten Commandments in your private home. Learn the by heart. We will be ok.
Mary Fusco says
I am a Christian. My 4 children went through 12 years each in public school. I took them to Religion classes after school. Religion does not belong in a school unless it is a religious school. Values should be taught at home! If religion is going to be pushed in schools, then every religion needs to be addressed. A good percentage of kids coming out of school today are illiterate and can’t do basic math. Let’s get back to teaching kids so they can be productive adults.
Sherry says
It seems extremely hypocritical to me that so many Evangelical Christians passionately try to impose their words of harsh judgement on anyone and everyone who does not agree with the “mottos” they have derived from the bible. They use those chosen words as “weapons” to severely chastise others.
Meanwhile, many of them certainly do NOT practice what they “practice” what they “preach”. Any so called Christian who voted for a person who was convicted for criminal lying and found guilty of sexually abusing and defaming a woman is the worst kind of hypocrite and should be deeply ashamed. The trouble is, the Christian religion is so corrupt, the preachers, leadership and church members no longer hold one another morally accountable. In their warped minds, “the end justifies the means”. My question is, just what “end” are they trying to create? It seems to me that they are willing to sacrifice their immortal souls to save each and every fetus, no matter the circumstances. Never mind, that in the attempt to do so, they have allowed a multitude of other sins to go unnoticed, resulting in the complete destruction of any credibility when it comes to teaching moral values as a whole.
Sherry says
Apparently I’m not the only one concerned about such things:
The phrase, “God will not be mocked” actually comes from a New Testament book called Galatians, a letter to a growing local house church community from their absentee pastoral leader. The writer speaks to a supposed truth that we will one day be accountable for our actions, imploring the hearers and readers as followers of Jesus, to be steadfast in doing good because goodness is the whole point—because that goodness is their calling, and because to claim faith while doing harm is the height of hypocrisy.
Now, I don’t know how all of this shakes out in the hereafter and just what kind of accounting we all have to make after we exhale one final time here, but I confess that lately I’m hoping the Conservative preachers’ warnings about evil people getting theirs are well-founded.
Because right now, I look around and I see them everywhere in this country, these ridiculous red-hatted clowns of an upside-down Christianity of cruelty.
We are in a golden age of God-mockers here in America.
They have ascended to the highest places in this nation, collecting all the earthly spoils of phony righteousness, leveraging every bit of counterfeit religious fervor, wielding all manner of perverted power, reaping a rotten harvest of irrational fear of the other.
And these professed believers are the very arrogant pretenders of piety they’ve been warning us about this whole time, and they can’t see it because they have learned to seek sin everywhere but in the mirror.
Seriously, a Christian thumbs-up to Donald Trump is a strident middle finger to Jesus Christ:
It’s a mockery of God to demonize dark-skinned human beings.
It’s a mockery of God to support a sexual predator.
It’s a mockery of God to deport those seeking refuge from tyranny.
It’s a mockery of God to strip a woman of her God-given free will.
It’s a mockery of God to separate children from their families.
It’s a mockery of God to prey upon the poor and vulnerable.
It is a mockery of God to deny healthcare to the sick.
It’s a mockery of God to be infatuated with guns.
It’s a mockery of God to applaud violent acts of domestic terrorism.
It’s a mockery of God to perpetuate racial inequity.
It’s a mockery of God to worship whiteness.
And it is a mockery of God to be guilty of all of these transgressions—while professing faith to be their genesis.
Today, while these self-righteous charlatans wildly parade their fake white American gospel in front of a world and a people they are unrelentingly predatory toward, seemingly without consequence or penalty—I hold out a bit of hope that one day they will face the justice that seems to be absent here, that there will be a final reckoning to make up for their prolific violence.
I pray that the brimstone, fiery warnings I was weaned on by pastors and priests were indeed true, even if the recipients were misidentified.
And I pray that people of deep faith will not grow weary in doing good while watching the bad people prosper while wearing a costume of religion; that whether or not justice evades them hereafter, that we do not allow them to injure humanity unabated here and now.
Even if God will be mocked by MAGA Christians, let us not be guilty of the collective sin of abiding it on our watch.
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz
Skibum says
Sherry, I give a loud AMEN to that!
Sherry says
Thanks so much Skibum! Let’s not kowtow to the bullying, ignorant victims of 20+ years Fox extreme right winged lying propaganda.
Rupert Murdoch’s goal was to instill fear and hate in the weak minded. He has accomplished that, but karma always has its way of making sure each of us reaps what we sow. A huge reckoning is coming!
Thank goodness we moved far away from Florida 3 years ago. I will continue to lend my voice to the return of “fact based” reality, truth, ethics, integrity, and equal justice.