(NewsNation) — A federal judge has temporarily halted a Louisiana law that mandates the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools.
U.S. District Judge John deGravelles granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday which stops the state from enforcing the law until the issue is sorted in the courts.
The judge wrote in the ruling that the law had an “overtly religious” purpose.
A coalition of civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit against the state after Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill this summer requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom on easily readable posters with three paragraphs about how the religious text has played an influential role in American history.
“If you want to respect the rule of law,” the Republican governor said during his signing of the bill, “you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); its branch in Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State; and the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed the suit on behalf of a multi-faith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools.
The Ten Commandments law has been widely shunned by civil liberty groups and faith leaders as being a gross infringement on the rights of students and a violation of the separation of church and state under the Constitution.
Landry’s administration pushed back against Tuesday’s ruling.
“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal, as H.B. 71’s implementation deadline is approaching on January 1, 2025,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement.
Shortly after the law was signed, several clergy also joined a group of parents of Louisiana public school students in suing the state over the law.
Rev. Marc J. Boswell, senior pastor at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, is part of the movement and says the law was deeply troubling but not surprising given the “concerning rise of Christian nationalism in Louisiana.”
“Don’t do this in our name,” he told NewsNation, referring to the Ten Commandments in schools. “We are not backing this. We are a Christian-identifying people and we do not support this.”
