A U.S. Court of Appeals has cleared the way for a Louisiana law requiring poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms to take effect.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-6 to lift a lower court’s first-placed ban on the law in 2024. In the opinion issued Friday, the court said it was too early to rule on the law’s constitutionality.
That’s partly because it’s not yet clear how clearly schools will display the religious text, whether teachers will refer to the Ten Commandments during classes, or whether other things like the Mayflower Compact or Declaration of Independence will also be displayed, the majority opinion said.
Without these details, the committee determined that it did not have sufficient information to evaluate any First Amendment issues that might arise from the law. In other words, there are not sufficient facts available “to permit judicial adjudication rather than speculation,” the majority wrote in the opinion.
But the six justices who voted against the decision wrote a series of dissents, with some arguing the case was ripe for judicial review, while others said the law exposes children to government-sanctioned religion where they are required to be, presenting a clear constitutional burden.
Circuit Judge James L. Dennis argued that the law “is exactly the kind of institution that the Framers of the Constitution anticipated and sought to prevent.”
The ruling comes after the full court heard arguments in the cases in January 2026 following a ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that Louisiana’s law… It was unconstitutional. Arkansas has it too Similar law which has been appealed In federal court.
Texas law” The law took effect Sept. 1, marking the nation’s largest attempt to suspend the Ten Commandments in public schools. Many school districts were banned from posting the posters after federal judges issued injunctions in two cases against the law, but they have already gone up in many classrooms across the state as districts have paid to print the posters themselves or accept donations.
These laws are among efforts by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to integrate religion into public school classrooms. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while supporters say the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of American law.
The laws have been challenged by families representing a variety of faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and clergy, as well as non-religious families.
In 1980, The US Supreme Court ruled A similar law in Kentucky violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress cannot “make a law respecting an establishment of religion.” The court found that the law had no secular purpose but served a clear religious purpose.
In 2005, the Supreme Court held that such displays in two Kentucky courts violated the Constitution. Meanwhile, the court upheld the Ten Commandments sign on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
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This story has been updated to correct the day of the week the ruling was issued to Friday, not Tuesday.