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Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has told school boards how to comply with the state’s law requiring public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, despite a federal district judge’s November 2024 ruling declaring it unconstitutional and prohibiting its enforcement. Instead, Murrill has told boards in 59 parishes that Judge John deGravelles’ ruling only applies to five parishes who sued the state over the law’s legality. Murrill, in her Jan. 3 letter to school boards, did not acknowledge that the law has been declared unconstitutional “in all applications,” but rather declared the law, “is plainly constitutional because there are constitutionally sound ways to implement it.” Plaintiffs who were successful in blocking the law’s enforcement notified school superintendents by letter Jan. 6, describing Murrill’s guidance as “misleading,” reminding them of the facts of the case, and encouraging them to respect the federal court ruling, which Murrill has appealed. The next court date is Jan. 23. “The AG’s guidance nevertheless claims that all school boards, except for the five school-board defendants in the Roake case, remain obligated to comply with H.B. 71,” wrote the plaintiffs, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana, […]