Federal Court Clears Way for Ten Commandments in Louisiana Schools
A federal appeals court sided with Louisiana on Friday in a case over displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools.
In 2024, Louisiana passed a law allowing Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, but the measure drew immediate legal challenges from groups like the ACLU.
Fortunately, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court was wrong to block Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law. The appeals court said the legal challenge was “premature” because the displays had not actually been put up in schools yet.
The judges noted that deciding whether the displays are constitutional or not at this point would force the court “to hypothesize an open-ended range of possible classroom displays,” the court said. “[That] is not judging; it is guessing.”
This is good news — and it’s worth remembering Arkansas has made headlines in recent months for displaying copies of the Ten Commandments in public schools and buildings as well.
Act 573 of 2025 by Sen. Jim Dotson (R — Bentonville) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) requires privately-funded copies of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools and other public buildings in Arkansas. The measure received strong support in the Arkansas Legislature last year.
However, lawyers from the ACLU and a group of atheist organizations sued to block the law in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, and Siloam Springs. In response, the judge in the case issued decisions against Act 573, claiming the Ten Commandments posters would pressure children “to observe, meditate on, venerate, and follow the State’s favored religious text, and to suppress expression of their own religious beliefs and backgrounds at school.”
But nothing in Act 573 would “pressure” students. In 2017 Arkansas passed the National Motto Display Act allowing the national motto — “In God We Trust” — to be displayed in Arkansas’ classrooms along with the U.S. flag and the Arkansas flag. Act 573 amended the National Motto Display Act to add the Ten Commandments to the list of historical items displayed in school.
Over the years, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states are free to honor and recognize documents or symbols that are important to our nation’s history — like the Ten Commandments or the national motto.
The Ten Commandments are one of the earliest examples of the rule of law, and they have had a profound impact in shaping our society and our government.
In his motion for summary judgment in Arkansas’ Ten Commandments case, Attorney General Tim Griffin wrote:
The Ten Commandments “have been the most influential law code in history.” … And displays and depictions of the decalogue and of Moses throughout government buildings and property reflect the significance of the Ten Commandments to our Nation’s history and heritage. … Act 573 does not violate the Establishment Clause because it is consistent with historical practices and understandings and does not bear any of the hallmarks of religious establishment.
During her testimony in support of Act 573 last year, Rep. Alyssa Brown noted that the U.S. Supreme Court now uses a “longstanding history and tradition test” to decide if it is constitutional to display something like a copy of the Ten Commandments. Rep. Brown said, “The Ten Commandments without a doubt will pass this longstanding history and tradition test.”
We believe our federal courts ultimately will agree and uphold Act 573 as constitutional.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
