A federal judge in Louisiana will hear arguments Monday about why the court should place a temporary restraining order on the state’s law that requires the Old Testament’s Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom.
Until recently, a case like this would be a slam dunk for people seeking to overturn the law. Not anymore, says Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino.
“The United State Supreme Court over the last three or four years has become more accommodating to religion in the public school setting,” Ciolino said.
That doesn’t mean it’s a slam dunk for the state, either. The state will still have to show the law meets certain conditions “to determine whether there’s a historical and traditional basis for posting the Ten Commandments,” Ciolino explained.
Ciolino believes the state’s ultimate goal is to get this before the U.S. Supreme Court, to see if it can overturn a 1980 precedent against forcing public schools to display Biblical text.
“At that point, anything can happen,” he said, “and there is a decent chance this U.S. Supreme court will look to ‘history and tradition’ and reach a different result than it reached in 1980.”