The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Louisiana can require every public school to post the Ten Commandments. This issue has been controversial in many states. The Ten Commandments is a specifically religious statement, and there are multiple versions of it among Christians and Jews. Some religions do not recognize the Ten Commandments.
Whenever religion is introduced into schools and other public places, the same problems arise. Whose religion will be taught? What about the rights of atheist families? it’s easy to forget that there are scores of different religions in the U.S., and each complains if the government honors one religion but not another.
The Louisiana Illuminator reported:
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appellate court has cleared the way for displays of the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom, removing an order that stopped state officials from enforcing a law that requires them.
In a decision issued Friday from its full roster of 18 judges, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a June decision from a three-judge panel that determined the 2024 state law was “plainly unconstitutional” and upheld a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law. Friday’s ruling lifts that injunction and allows the state to mandate all schools display the 10 Commandments in every classroom.”
Five judges on the 5th Circuit dissented with the unsigned majority opinion that placed emphasis on not knowing exact details of what the displays would look like once placed in classrooms. Attorney General Liz Murrill has provided examples and guidance for displays to follow the law, but local school districts have authority to determine what they look like.
Without any context, appellate judges said in the opinion they were unwilling to rule based on conjecture.
“It would oblige us to hypothesize an open-ended range of possible classroom displays and then assess each under a context-sensitive standard that depends on facts not yet developed and, indeed, not yet knowable,” the opinion reads. “That exercise exceeds the judicial function. guessing.”
The ruling stops short of declaring Louisiana’s law constitutional or saying it doesn’t violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment that prohibits a state-sanctioned religion.
However, in a concurring opinion, Judge James Ho, a federal court appointee of President Donald Trump in 2018, went further than the other judges in the majority.
“In sum, the Louisiana Ten Commandments law is not just constitutional — it affirms our Nation’s highest and most noble traditions,” Ho wrote.
“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial,” she said. “My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally. Louisiana public schools should follow the law,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Murrill issued a statement in response to the 5th Circuit ruling. Benjamin Aguiñaga, the state’s solicitor general, has argued the case before the 5th Circuit.
The ACLU of Louisiana, which was among the groups representing plaintiffs in the case, is “exploring all legal pathways forward to continue the fight against this unconstitutional law,” executive director Alanah Odoms said in a statement through a spokesman.
The plaintiffs in the case, Roarke v. Brumley, are nine families who have children in public schools in five parishes — East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, St. Tammany and Vernon. Their views range from secular to religious, including Catholic, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Jewish and other faiths. They have argued the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments the legislature adopted for the classroom displays differs from the versions they follow.
Along with the ACLU, Americans United and the Freedom from Religion Foundation represented the plaintiffs and issued a joint statement in response to the 5th Circuit decision.
“Today’s ruling is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,” the statement reads. “Longstanding judicial precedent makes clear that our clients need not submit to the very harms they are seeking to prevent before taking legal action to protect their rights. But this fight isn’t over. We will continue fighting for the religious freedom of Louisiana’s families.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This issue is either a diversion or a crisis. Christian Nationalism, the obvious goal of this administration, is either a diversion or a goal. Is it a diversion to gain support of people who think this is desirable? Certainly there is a sizable minority that has demonstrated its willingness to accept the tyranny of its allies. These people react to the label of “Christian “ the way they react to Coke or Pepsi: the logo sells. This is why Trump is so successful with that group.
For his part, Trump is just trying to stay one step ahead of the law. His success for so many years is a savage indictment of our justice systems, and threatens to upend them all. Nothing he says has any purpose but that of diverting the news from covering the main story, the corruption of his second presidency. Likewise, his republican brethren would rather have you talking about the posting of the Ten Commandments rather than giving a company from Argentina the right to destroy the boundary waters.
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It’s a goal. See Thiel/Vought’s Project 2025
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Let’s post the Ten Commandments in every history class as a guide to assess the lawlessness and immorality of this administration’s deplorable leader who has broken every commandment multiple times and the officials who haven’t lived by their sworn oaths. Great teaching tool for lessons in civics and critical thinking.
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Great idea, Shelley!
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WHOSE TEN COMMANDMENTS?
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Louisiana can require every public school to post the Ten Commandments.
The Catholic Ten Commandments and the Protestant Ten Commandments are different. WHOSE VERSION OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WILL BE POSTED IN EVERY CLASSROOM?
Will there be a long battle in the courts to determine whose version of the Ten Commandments is posted in schools and other public places, because if the Protestant-only version is posted and/or taught in schools, Catholic children in public schools and Catholics could be made targets of taunting and derision.
The official Catholic Ten Commandments are found on pages 496 and 497 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Compared commandment-by-commandment, the Protestant and Catholic Ten Commandments are nearly identical; the most significant difference is with the Second Commandment:
SECOND COMMANDMENT:
Protestant Version: “You shall not make unto you any graven images.”
Catholic Version: “You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.”
The Catholic Church holds that since the First Commandment says “You shall have no other gods but me,” there is no reason to repeat that in the Second Commandment.
The Second Commandment is the point of the only significant difference between the Protestant and the Catholic Ten Commandments — and that difference has triggered bloody warfare between Catholics and Protestants for centuries.
But here’s how the conflict arises: The Hebrew word translated as “graven images” in the Old Testament is “pesel”. There is also another Hebrew word for “graven images”; it is “matzevah”.
In the Old Testament Ten Commandments, the word “pesel” is used in the Second Commandment and translated into English as “graven images”; but “pesel” refers to statues that are specifically carved as idols to be worshipped, not the kind of statues found in Catholic churches.
The Hebrew word “matzevah” refers to statues that are carved as memorials for holy people and loved ones and are not worshipped. The statues in Catholic churches are “matzevah” — statues that commemorate Mary and the saints, not statues that are worshipped.
So, the actual word in the original Hebrew Second Commandment in the Old Testament refers ONLY TO STATUES THAT ARE CARVED SPECIFICALLY AS IDOLS to be worshipped and DOES NOT refer to statues carved to commemorate loved ones and Christian role models.
Catholics don’t pray to the statues of Mary and the saints as people pray to God. Catholics ask Mary and the saints to pray to God for them, just as Christians of all denominations ask loved ones to pray to God for them. For example, in the “Hail, Mary” prayer, Catholics say: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, PRAY FOR US now and at the hour of our death.” Catholics are asking Mary to pray for them to God, and it is God Who will do the rest.
Over the centuries of conflict, and even today, Protestants have accused Catholics of worshipping statues of Mary and the saints, and Protestants have not only viewed Catholics as idolaters, but have made war on Catholics for that mistaken reason.
The long and bloody Hundred Years War that ravaged all of Europe was largely because Protestants accused Catholics of being idol worshippers. Will America experience such religious warfare over whose version of the Ten Commandments is posted and discussed in public schools?
Catholics have tried again and again to point out the true meaning of the word “pesel” in the Old Testament Ten Commandments and to explain that the memorial statues (“matzevah”) in Catholic churches are simply memorial statues, not idols.
But Protestants have never acknowledged the true meaning of “pesel” in the Old Testament Ten Commandments and have stuck with their own English translations that hide the true meaning of the word.
So, what will happen in public schools if only the Protestant Ten Commandments are posted in the classrooms and Protestant children begin accusing Catholic children of not honoring the Protestant Second Commandment and of being idol worshippers?
There will be conflict in the classrooms, in the school yards, between neighbors and co-workers, and there will be long and costly court battles. If it comes to that, the U.S. Supreme Court, knowing the true meaning of the word “pesel” in the Protestant Ten Commandments, will rule in favor of the Catholic plaintiffs, setting off protests from Protestants and further dividing American versus American.
And there won’t just be conflicts between Protestant and Catholic children in the schools because there are public school children of other religions which don’t use the same Ten Commandments that either Protestants or Catholics use.
The ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow posting the Ten Commandments in Louisiana classrooms is fraught with dangers for America of the kind that our Founding Fathers intended to avoid by writing The Establishment Clause into our Constitution.
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