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Court allows Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in schools to take effect

The 5th Circuit Court ruled 12-6 that challenges to Louisiana's Ten Commandments display law are premature, enabling immediate enforcement while allowing future constitutional review.

  • On Feb. 20, the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower-court injunction, allowing H.B. 71 to take effect in Louisiana public K‑12 schools and state-funded colleges.
  • H.B. 71, passed in 2024, requires Ten Commandments posters in all public K‑12 schools and state-funded universities but was blocked earlier by a trial court judge and a three-judge 5th Circuit panel before the full court agreed to rehear the case Jan. 20.
  • Because facts about implementation remain unsettled, the majority found challenges unripe since it is unknown how prominently displays will appear or if teachers will reference them, but nothing prevents future challenges once local school boards implement the displays.
  • Attorney General Liz Murrill urged schools to comply and provided sample posters, while a conservative advocacy group shipped posters to almost every school system, though local school districts mostly kept them boxed.
  • The decision raises the prospect of Supreme Court review as dissenting judges argue the law exposes children to government-endorsed religion, with similar laws challenged in Arkansas and Texas.
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By Hannah Schoenbaum and Rebecca Boone. A federal appeals court has cleared the way for a Louisiana law requiring poster-sized copies of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 12-6 to lift a lower court's 2024 injunction against the law. In its opinion released Friday, the court noted that it was too early to rule on the law's constitutionality.

·United States
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Reuters broke the news in United Kingdom on Friday, February 20, 2026.
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