State Attorney General Liz Murrill is filing a brief against the lawsuit filed against the state’s Ten Commandments law requiring a poster of the biblical text to be displayed in all public school classrooms. Murrill said the suit that’s been filed by several advocacy groups is premature.
“And the plaintiffs cannot prove that they have any actual injury, that’s because they don’t allege to have seen any displays yet and they certainly can’t allege that they’ve seen any display of the Ten Commandments that violates their constitutional rights,” said Murrill.
Loyola University Law Professor Dane Ciolino said the law is patently unconstitutional and he expects the state will lose the case at the district and appellate court levels. He said the really interesting thing will be to see what happens in two or three years when the case makes it to the US Supreme Court.
“And the Supreme Court could overrule 50, 60, 70 years’ worth of precedent in this area and who knows what will happen,” said Ciolino.
Murrill said the high-profile case is being handled internally through her solicitor general.
“All handling is internal, I don’t have any budget created specifically for outside counsel,” said Murrill
Ciolino said it’s a political move by the Governor and the State Attorney General for the Ten Commandments law to go before the now extremely conservative US Supreme Court.
“I would hate to guess whether it’s likely, or possible or probable that they’re going to overrule those prior precedents but it’s certainly in the realm of possibility,” said Ciolino.
After the law was signed in June and lawsuits were filed, a federal judge ruled classrooms could not display the Ten Commandments until at least November 15th.
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