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All Louisiana school districts must comply with a recent federal court ruling barring classroom Ten Commandments displays despite contradictory guidance from a state official, civil rights groups said in a Jan. 6 letter to district superintendents. Three days earlier, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill instructed districts to implement House Bill 71, a 2024 law requiring displays of the Decalogue in public classrooms by the beginning of this school year. While the law was ruled unconstitutional in November and is still under appeal, Murrill claimed the decision applies only to the five districts specifically named in Rev. Roake v. Brumley . “I have issued guidance to our public schools regarding compliance with Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, HB-71. As I have repeatedly said, HB-71 is plainly constitutional because there are constitutionally sound ways to implement it,” she said . But the four civil rights organizations representing the parent and student plaintiffs in the lawsuit warned the state’s remaining 67 districts must honor the Nov. 12 U.S. Fifth District Court of Appeals ruling blocking HB-71 upon further appeal. “This means that there is no way for school districts to implement the statute in a constitutionally permissible manner,” attorneys for Americans United for […]