In Louisiana, Ten Commandments Go Back to School

Religious Freedom, ,

The Ten Commandments are going back to school in Louisiana this year.

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. However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 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 would force the court “to hypothesize an open-ended range of possible classroom displays,” the court said. “[That] is not judging; it is guessing.”

KSLA reports some Louisiana schools began displaying the Ten Commandments during the past school year while others plan to begin displaying them this year.

In April, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a Texas law placing the Ten Commandments in school classrooms did not violate the Constitution. The court noted that “no child is required to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin.”

The legal battles over the Ten Commandments in Texas and Louisiana directly relate to a similar legal battle in Arkansas.

Last year, lawmakers passed Act 573 of 2025 by Sen. Jim Dotson (R — Bentonville) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) requiring privately-funded copies of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools and other public buildings in Arkansas. The measure received strong support from the Arkansas Legislature.

However, lawyers from the ACLU and a group of atheist organizations sued to block the law, and the federal judge presiding over the case issued decisions 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.”

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has asked the 8th Circuit to let reverse the lower court decision and let Arkansas follow Act 573.

Nothing in Act 573 “pressures” 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. Courts have also ruled that public school students are free to study religious texts like the Bible academically.

During her testimony for 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 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.

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Federal Government Strengthens Religious Liberty Protections

Religious Freedom, ,

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued updated guidance directing every federal agency to protect the free exercise of religion.

Religious liberty is recognized and protected under the First Amendment, and it is one of the hallmarks of our nation. But religious freedom has repeatedly come under attack in court, in government, and elsewhere.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the updated guidance on July 23. It is the first change to the DOJ’s religious liberty guidelines since 2017, and it reflects nearly a decade of important U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have expanded protections for people of faith.

The updated guidance includes several important protections. It reaffirms that the government cannot interfere in how churches and religious organizations govern themselves. It protects parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. It also ensures that religious organizations can compete for federal contracts and grants on equal footing with secular organizations — without being forced to give up their religious identity or hiring practices.

It also makes clear that religious exercise is not just about what people believe in private — it includes how people live out their faith in daily life.

Over the years, wedding venues, bakeries, photography studios, and florist shops have been dragged into court simply because their owners wanted to operate according to their deeply held convictions.

People of faith have faced pressure to check their convictions at the door in order to participate in government programs. This guidance pushes back against that.

Nobody should be forced to choose between their religious convictions and their livelihood, and nobody should be punished for obeying their conscience.

The free exercise of religion is a fundamental right — and it deserves to be treated that way at every level of government.

Arkansas is currently ranked number one in the nation on religious liberty by First Liberty Institute’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy. That ranking reflects years of hard work by Arkansas’ lawmakers who have passed strong protections for the free exercise of religion. For example, Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act is one of the best in the country.

Strong federal guidance like this works hand in hand with strong state laws like Arkansas’. Together, they help ensure that Arkansans don’t have to worry about being forced to violate their faith.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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