The fight over posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms returned to court Jan. 20 when the full 17-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in two cases challenging new laws in Louisiana and Texas.
The court heard two hours of debate without rendering a decision.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, was in the courtroom for the debate and told NBC News afterward, “I like our chances.”
The cases are Rev. Roake v. Brumley and Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District. Both challenge new state laws that requires educators in Louisiana and Texas to post certain versions of the Ten Commandments on all classroom walls. Parents of schoolchildren in those states have challenged the laws as unconstitutional violations of church-state separation.
Last year, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled that Louisiana’s House Bill 71 is “plainly unconstitutional” and contradicted long-standing Supreme Court precedent. However, on appeal of the appeal, the full court agreed to rehear the case again.
Federal courts in Texas also have issued multiple preliminary injunctions blocking enforcement of Senate Bill 10, concluding the law violates students’ First Amendment rights.
Last August, U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio issued a preliminary injunction on Texas Senate Bill 10 to remain in effect as litigation in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District continued. The law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June requires 16-by-20-inch framed copies or posters of the Ten Commandments in every public elementary and secondary school classroom.
Despite earlier court losses, both Louisiana and Texas pressed for a review by the full Fifth Circuit Court.
“SB-10 crosses the line from exposure to coercion,” Biery said in the 55-page order that outlines the history of church-state separation in the United States.
Despite earlier court losses, both Louisiana and Texas pressed for a review by the full Fifth Circuit Court, which is considered one of the most conservative in the nation. Reports of what was said in the rare assemblage of the full appeals court panel were made public by some of the groups involved.
According to the Texas Tribune: “During oral arguments in New Orleans, some judges questioned the states about their decision to use a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments and how that would affect families who do not follow those religious principles. Lawyers for Texas and Louisiana argued that the laws do not ask children to subscribe to a particular belief system and urged the judges to consider legislators’ intent to teach students about important documents in U.S. history.
“In response to the states’ arguments about the historical significance of the Ten Commandments, judges questioned how children would know the posters have anything to do with American history. They also asked the state to provide historical evidence showing the use of the Ten Commandments in public schools.”
Further: “Judges asked the lawyers representing the families in the lawsuit why they consider the Ten Commandments posters problematic when students recite the Pledge of Allegiance and learn about the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail — all of which refer to God.”
Among testimony against the Ten Commandments laws were these:
- Pastor Jeff Sims from Louisiana: “I send my children to public school to learn math, English, science, art and so much more — but not to be evangelized by the state into its chosen religion. These religious displays send a message to my children and other students that people of some religious denominations are superior to others. This is religious favoritism and it’s not only dangerous but runs counter to my Presbyterian values of inclusion and equality.”
- Rabbi Mara Nathan from Texas: “No one faith should be canonized as more holy than others. Yet Texas legislators are imposing the Ten Commandments on public-school children. Though they are a sacred text to me and many others, the Ten Commandments has no place on the walls of public-school classrooms. Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”
ACLU of Texas attorney Sarah Corning said after the hearing: “We are proud to be in front of the Fifth Circuit representing Texas families who are challenging forced Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms. SB-10 is a blatant violation of our First Amendment rights and sends students the message that they only belong if they follow the government’s chosen religion. Texas schools are not Sunday schools, and the Constitution protects Texans’ right to decide how or whether they practice their faith. Texas families want and deserve better from our public schools.”
On the other hand, Kelly Shackelford, president and chief counsel for First Liberty Institute, said the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District should pave the way for allowing Ten Commandments displays: “Texas and Louisiana’s laws clearly meet the new test under the Supreme Court’s Kennedy ‘history and tradition’ test. The Ten Commandments are a part of the nation’s history and tradition; banning them from schools because they are religious is not justified by the Constitution, and it undermines a comprehensive education for America’s students.”
The two cases are not about “banning” the Ten Commandments from public schools but rather about whether schools may be mandated to display the Commandments as both laws do.