A Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in every public classroom is “unconstitutional on its face” and may not go into effect Jan. 1 as state officials hoped, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge also determined House Bill 71 to be “discriminatory” in preferencing a particular brand of Christianity over other faiths and “coercive” because all school children, regardless of religious affiliation, would be forced to see the framed or postered copies of the Decalogue throughout the school day. John deGravelles “Further, these displays must be posted in every ‘classroom in each school,’ all year round, regardless of subject matter, and regardless of the age of the student. Thus, the question is not whether the biblical laws can ever be put on a poster; the issue is whether, as a matter of law, there is any constitutional way to display the Ten Commandments in accordance with the minimum requirements of the Act,” he wrote. “In short, the court finds that there is not.” Plaintiffs and their legal representatives said deGravelles’ order is a wake-up call for state politicians bent on forcing their religious doctrines on public school children and […]

By : Markus McDowell