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The path has been cleared for a Louisiana law mandating the display of poster-sized versions of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. This development follows a decision by a U.S. appeals court.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 12-6 vote, opted to lift a previous block on the law imposed by a lower court in 2024. According to the court’s opinion released on Friday, it is premature to assess the law’s constitutional validity at this stage.
The ruling highlighted uncertainties regarding how prominently the Ten Commandments will be displayed, whether teachers will incorporate them into lessons, or if accompanying documents like the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence will also be posted. These unanswered questions, the majority opinion noted, leave the court without adequate information to evaluate potential First Amendment conflicts related to the law.
Due to the lack of specifics, the judges concluded that there isn’t enough factual basis to facilitate a judicial decision, avoiding what they termed as “judicial speculation.”
However, dissenting opinions from six judges argued against the decision. Some judges believed the case was ready for judicial examination, while others contended that the law places children in a position of encountering government-endorsed religion in a compulsory setting, raising significant constitutional concerns.
Circuit Judge James L. Dennis wrote that the law “is precisely the kind of establishment the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent.”
The ruling comes after the full court heard arguments in the cases in January 2026 following a ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that Louisiana’s law was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that has been challenged in federal court.
Texas law’ took effect on Sept. 1, marking the largest attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. Multiple school districts were barred from posting them after federal judges issued injunctions in two cases against the law, but they have already gone up in many classrooms across the state as districts paid to have the posters printed themselves or accepted donations.
The laws are among the pushes by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public school classrooms. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while backers argue that the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.
The laws have been challenged by families representing a variety of religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, and clergy, in addition to nonreligious families.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The court found that the law had no secular purpose but served a plainly religious purpose.
And in 2005, the Supreme Court held that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin.
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This story has been updated to correct the day of the week the ruling was issued to Friday, not Tuesday.