A federal appeals court has firmly rejected a Louisiana law that required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled unanimously, supporting an earlier temporary block that had stopped the controversial H.B. 71 from taking effect. This decision was a major win for civil rights groups, which argued that the law violated the separation of church and state.
As reported by CBS News, the appeals court made it clear that Louisiana’s law is unconstitutional, pointing to the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A key part of the court’s reasoning was the Supreme Court’s 1980 ruling in Stone v. Graham, which struck down a similar Kentucky law. The Fifth Circuit emphasized that this earlier decision still applies and must be followed by lower courts. Because of this, the judges concluded that H.B. 71 was clearly unconstitutional under existing legal standards.
