A federal appeals court cleared the way on Friday for Louisiana to require the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, allowing the state to enforce a law that was passed in 2024 but that a lower court quickly blocked.
A majority of the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided to lift a preliminary injunction on the law. The judges discarded previous decisions by a district court judge and a smaller panel of the Fifth Circuit, which had deemed the law to be “plainly unconstitutional.”
Louisiana was the first state to enact such a law since the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law in 1980 that had a similar directive.
Under the Louisiana law, the commandments must be displayed in each classroom of every public elementary, middle and high school, as well as public college and university classrooms. The posters must be no smaller than 11 by 14 inches, and the commandments must be “the central focus,” displayed “in a large, easily readable font.” The posters are also supposed to include a three-paragraph statement asserting that the Ten Commandments were a “prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
Rick Rojas is the Atlanta bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the South.
The post Court Clears Way for Louisiana Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Classrooms appeared first on New York Times.
