Attorney General Steve Marshall recently joined a brief in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals defending a recently blocked Louisiana law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms.
Earlier this year, Louisiana's state legislature passed a bill requiring all public K-12 schools and state-funded universities to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill into law in June. In November, a federal district court judge granted an injunction, blocking the law from taking effect.
U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge said the law had an “overtly religious” purpose and was “unconstitutional on its face.”
Marshall co-led the letter with Kentucky and joined 16 other state attorneys general in asking the appeals court to lift the injunction, claiming the Ten Commandments have held historical significance as one of the foundations of the U.S. legal system.
“It is hard to understand how one could argue that a renewed emphasis on this part of our nation’s heritage through the display of the Ten Commandments could be detrimental to our students,” Marshall said. “Our friends in Louisiana have made a strong statement, pointing to our country’s founding principles as we educate the next generation.”
Marshall was joined in the brief by AGs from Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
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