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Civil rights organizations are urging school districts not to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms starting January 1st as required by a new state law.
“As we stand here today, the law is unconstitutional,” says Alanah Odoms, ACLU Louisiana executive director. “And so I would really urge all districts to just follow that recommendation from the federal court.”
Odoms says Judge John DeGravelles was very clear in his ruling that the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools is unconstitutional.
“Even if certain districts were not party to our suit, we encourage them to take the guidance that the federal court has given in order to really wait to find out what’s going to happen with this case at the United States Supreme Court, because that’s where we actually believe it’s going to go,” says Odoms.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that DeGravelles’ injunction only applies to the five districts named in the lawsuit; as such, the state has given all those other school districts the green light in posting the Ten Commandments in their classrooms. The five districts named in the lawsuit are East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, St. Tammany and Vernon.
The state has said it would defend any school district which gets sued over displaying the Ten Commandments.
Odoms says the state is wasting taxpayer money in doing so.
“We’ve already litigated a matter that we all reasonably understood to be unconstitutional,” says Odoms. “And we’ve spent now almost four (or) five months litigating that case. And now (we’re) finally hearing from a federal judge that it’s unconstitutional.”
Attorney General Liz Murrill says the Ten Commandments law is clearly constitutional.
Odoms is urging the state to follow its own advice until the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on January 23rd.
“This is an administration that is really telling the community that courts, judges (and) law enforcement are the kind of people you really want to respect and you really want to listen to,” Odoms notes. “And so that would be my recommendation to the state and to the school districts.”
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