(CN) — A federal judge on Tuesday granted an injunction against a Louisiana law requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. The law was set to go into effect on New Year’s Day, but after hearing oral arguments in October, U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles of the Middle District of Louisiana determined it violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
DeGravelles found the display would have the effect of inducing schoolchildren “to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the commandments,” which is “not a permissible state objective.” Further, the display would be discriminatory because the law “fails to select historical documents generally and versions of the decalogue specifically ‘without regard for belief.’”
A suit against the law was filed in June by religious leaders, teachers and parents of public school students, who argued it is a clear violation of the separation of church and state. DeGravelles agreed and emphasized the law also amounts to coercion, noting the plaintiffs’ argument that students would be unconstitutionally pressured “into religious observance, veneration and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.