Judge blocks Louisiana law requiring schools to display Ten Commandments

A new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom by 1 January has been temporarily blocked after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.

The judge said the law was “unconstitutional on its face” – and plaintiffs were likely to win their case with claims that the law violates the US constitution’s first amendment, which bars the government from establishing a religion and guarantees the right to religious freedom.

The ruling marks a win for opponents of the law, who argue that it is a violation of the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. They also argue that the poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments would isolate students, especially those who are not Christian.

Proponents say that the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance to the foundation of US law.

The US district judge John W deGravelles in Baton Rouge issued the order in an ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of parents of Louisiana public school children. DeGravelles was appointed to the bench during Barack Obama’s presidency.

Any appeals in the case would be heard by the US fifth circuit, which is widely seen as perhaps the most conservative court in the country.

The Louisiana law ruled on by deGravelles was passed by a Republican-dominated legislature in a reliably conservative state that is ensconced in the Bible belt.

The legislation, which has been touted by Republicans as well as Donald Trump as he successfully sought a second presidency, is one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. The push includes Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students and Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons.

In recent years, similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, none have gone into effect.

In 1980, the US supreme court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the US constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.

Louisiana’s legislation, which applies to all public K-12 school and state-funded university classrooms, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed on a poster or framed document at least 11 by 14in (28 by 36cm) in size with the text as the central focus and “printed in a large, easily readable font”.

Each poster must be paired with the four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries”.

Tens of thousands of posters would probably be needed to satisfy the new law. Proponents say that schools are not required to spend public money on the posters, and instead that they can be bought using donations or that groups and organizations will donate the actual posters.

Notably, in August, Louisiana’s far-right governor, Jeff Landry, suggested that parents tell their children to “not look” at the Ten Commandments if they were offended by their display in the state’s classrooms.

The Associated Press contributed reporting