A federal appeals court has tossed out its previous ruling that Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law is “plainly unconstitutional” and announced all 17 of its judges will now reconsider the case.
The Fifth Circuit U.S. District Court of Appeals in New Orleans granted the state’s request Oct. 6 to vacate a three-judge panel’s unanimous decision in June prohibiting decalogue displays in every public classroom beginning with the resumption of classes in August.
The brief order announcing the entire-bench review of Roake v. Brumley explained only that members of the court, which is considered one of the most conservative in the country, voted to rehear the case.
“Glad to see the Fifth Circuit is taking this en banc. Looking forward to those arguments in court,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a report by the Louisiana Illuminator.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and a private law firm are representing the nine multi-faith and nonreligious families in the lawsuit.
“The panel’s unanimous ruling last June was well reasoned and correctly followed binding Supreme Court precedent.”
“The panel’s unanimous ruling last June was well reasoned and correctly followed binding Supreme Court precedent. We believe there is no reason to revisit it,” the groups said jointly.
“Nevertheless, we look forward to presenting our clients’ case to the entire court of appeals, and we remain confident that the constitutional values and principles at the heart of the First Amendment, which guarantee religious freedom for all students and families, will prevail in the end.”
The same organizations are representing plaintiffs in ongoing lawsuits against Ten Commandments laws in Arkansas and Texas. Federal judges in those cases also have blocked implementation of the statutes pending the outcome of litigation.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signs the Ten Commandments bill into law. (Photo: Governor’s office)
Louisiana House Bill 71 was signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry in 2024 and requires Ten Commandments displays of 11-by-14 inches to be placed in all public K-12, college and university classrooms. The posters or framed copies mandate a specific Protestant Christian translation of the Scripture and are required to be exhibited prominently.
Murrill has vowed to fight for the bill at every level while Landry has publicly expressed his hope the dispute will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state and the school districts named in Roake v. Brumley petitioned for the rarely granted en banc rehearing, which enables the full court to reconsider earlier decisions by its three-judge panels.
According to Reuters, defendants argued previous rulings against the Ten Commandments law wrongly relied on outdated Supreme Court precedent. They also claimed the three-judge panel misinterpreted Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 Supreme Court decision that a football coach’s midfield prayer sessions were protected by the First Amendment.
But attorneys with Americans United, the ACLU and other civil rights groups involved in the case said they anticipate the full appeals court also will uphold the temporary restraining order against Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law.
“We emphasize that the district court’s preliminary injunction order in the Roake case — where the court found that this law is facially unconstitutional — is not disturbed by the Fifth Circuit’s decision to rehear the appeal.”
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