A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments displays in every classroom of state-funded schools, just weeks before it was set to take effect on January 1.
U.S. District Judge John deGravelles issued a 177-page opinion Tuesday, ruling that the law is “coercive” and likely unconstitutional. The decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed by nine families who argue the mandate violates the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.
Some school districts, including Monroe City Schools, had already begun preparations to implement the law before the ruling put those plans on hold.
Ironically, the law requires more displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools than most churches. Very few have the ten commandments on every room of their facilities as the new Louisiana law would require of public school.
The law would…
