Overview
- All 17 active judges of the U.S. Fifth Circuit heard nearly two and a half hours of arguments in New Orleans on consolidated challenges to Texas’ SB 10 and Louisiana’s classroom display requirement.
- Judges pressed both sides on whether mandated postings constitute coercion of students or a passive acknowledgment of history, invoking comparisons to the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
- Plaintiffs argued that the state-selected version of the Ten Commandments forces constant exposure to religious scripture in classrooms, while Texas and Louisiana maintained the displays are noncoercive and historically grounded.
- Lower courts previously blocked both laws, including an August injunction by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery covering 11 Texas districts and an order halting Louisiana’s law that a Fifth Circuit panel called “plainly unconstitutional” before the full court vacated that ruling for rehearing.
- No decision was issued, with attorneys expecting a ruling in months that could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, even as Texas officials continue appeals and enforcement efforts against districts that have declined to display the posters.