ACLU sues Louisiana over law requiring Ten Commandments in school classrooms

The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of more than a dozen plaintiffs, on Monday filed a lawsuit against several Louisiana state officials, arguing that a state law requiring classrooms to display the Biblical Ten Commandments is unconstitutional. The ACLU described the plaintiffs as nine different families of varying religious faiths and backgrounds, all with children in Louisiana schools. Several clergy members are among the plaintiffs. The law, which Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed last week, requires every public school classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments alongside three paragraphs of text explaining their historical presence in American education.

What exactly does the ACLU say is unconstitutional about this? The law violates the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the ACLU says. Those laws prevent the government from making laws requiring religious practices or preventing people from freely expressing their rights.

Have U.S. Courts ever decided issues like this before? More than four decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court in Stone v. Graham struck down a Kentucky law requiring each classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments. The Court ruled that the statute served no secular purpose, and therefore violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause.