A Federal Court of Appeals ruled on Friday, in a unanimous decision, in favor of a coalition of Louisiana parents that he demanded to block a state law that requires public schools and universities to show the ten commandments in the classroom.
The decision of the Court of Appeals defends the decision of a lower court in November that declares Louisiana’s law as “facially unconstitutional.”
“Parents and students challenge a statute that requires public schools to permanently show the ten commandments in each Louisiana classroom. The district court found the statute facially unconstitutionally and preliminary ordered its application. We affirm,” said the court in his ruling.
Now, the case is closer to the United States Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority of 6-3.
“We are grateful for this decision, which honors religious diversity and the rights of religious freedom of the families of public schools in Louisiana,” he said Reverend Darcy Roake, who is demanding in the case.
Louisiana’s law entered into force this year in the public schools of K-12 and the State financed by the State. State officials issued guidance on how the posters of the ten commandments could be designed and hanged in classrooms for educational purposes.
Although the law applies to most school districts throughout the State, the five school districts that have parents who are demanding in the original demand are exempt while the dispute develops.
It is not clear how many school districts, if anyone, have begun to meet, and questions remain about what could happen with educators who finally do not cooperate.
During the Court of Federal Appeals in January, the Attorney General of Louisiana, Benjamin Aguñaga, argued that the claim of the plaintiffs appeared too soon, before posters had been shown.
“The plaintiffs seek to challenge the hypothetical screens that do not exist and that they have never seen,” said Aguñaga.
“The plaintiffs jumped the weapon here and presented an immature case,” he said.
But Jonathan Youngwood, a lawyer of the coalition of parents who represent Jewish, Christian, universalist and non -religious origins, said that the purpose of the law is linked to religion and violates a separation of the Church and the State.
“What makes this so significant is the requirement that is in each (classroom) during its 13 years in public school, 177 days a year,” said Youngwood. “It can’t be avoided. It can’t be avoided.”
The American Union of Civil Liberties, the American Union of Civil Liberties of Louisiana, the Americans united for the separation of the Church and the State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP are supporting the plaintiffs.
The attorney general of Louisiana, Liz Murrill, has said that public funds would not be required to print the posters and that they can be supplied through private donations. The law dictates that the posters must be at least 11 by 14 inches and include a “statement of context” that provides a historical context for the commandments, that the State believes that it makes its law constitutional.
In a Facebook publication in January, Murrill said the State argues that federal courts “have no jurisdiction to decide this case.”
“The Constitution does not prohibit the attempt of our legislature to teach our students what the Supreme Court has said repeatedly: the ten commandments have historical importance as the basis of our legal system,” said Murrill.
But the American district judge John Degravelles, of the Middle District of Louisiana, did not agree with the State in his ruling in November, in which he wrote that there is no “constitutional way to show the ten commandments in accordance with the minimum requirements of the law.”
The Supreme Court has also addressed the issue previously, when the judges ruled 5-4 in 1980 that Kentucky’s publication of the ten commandments in public schools was unconstitutional.
Even so, President Donald Trump supported Louisiana’s law during his campaign.
Louisiana and other states led by Republicans have pressed new bills and policies that are testing the limits of religion in public schools. That has included Oklahoma ordering public schools the degrees from five to 12 to incorporate the Bible into the plans of lessons and Texas, which allows public school districts to opt for a new study plan of primary school with Bible -based lessons.
In April, the Supreme Court listened to an offer from Oklahoma officials to approve the first religious autonomous school financed with public funds in the Nation.
Meanwhile, republican leaders in other states, such as Alabama and Texas, are supporting a legislation similar to that of Louisiana that would allow the ten commandments in public schools. In April, Arkansas legislation that requires the ten commandments to be published in the classrooms and libraries of all public schools became law only a few days after the legislature controlled by the Republican party approved it.
