A federal appeals court is set to reconsider its decision about whether states can require public schools to display the Ten Commandments. The full United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed to hear Louisiana’s appeal of a June ruling by a three-judge panel that found that its Ten Commandments law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s 1980 Stone v. Graham decision ruled that laws requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments violate the First Amendment and have no “secular legislative purpose.”Despite the decision, which has not been overturned, several conservative states, such as Texas and Arkansas, recently have passed laws similar to the one in Louisiana. Federal courts have blocked those laws. Conservatives argue that the precedent used in Stone was recently overturned, and are optimistic that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will overturn Stone itself given the opportunity.Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, celebrated the Fifth Circuit’s decision to hear the case en banc and said she is “looking forward” to arguing in support of the law in front of all 17 judges.A conservative law firm that is assisting the state in its defense of the law, the Becket Fund, said in a post on X, “Symbols with religious origins have been a natural part of American culture for centuries — appearing on our state flags, seals, currency, and national monuments. One need only look at a dollar bill bearing the words ‘In God We Trust’ to know religion is a deeply-rooted part of the American experience. Louisiana is simply continuing that tradition by including one of the most enduring of these symbols in its public schools.”A plaintiff in the case, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement, “The panel’s unanimous ruling last June was well reasoned and correctly followed binding Supreme Court precedent. We believe there is no reason to revisit it. Nevertheless, we look forward to presenting our clients’ case to the entire court of appeals, and we remain confident that the constitutional values and principles at the heart of the First Amendment, which guarantee religious freedom for all students and families, will prevail in the end.”A date for oral arguments has not been set as of Tuesday morning.Regardless of whether the Fifth Circuit upholds the law, the decision will likely not be the end of the matter, as either side will likely seek to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court to settle the question of whether Stone should stand.
