The entire 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to reconsider a prior ruling by a three-judge panel that had held “plainly unconstitutional” a Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments displays in public-school classrooms.
The grant of rehearing en banc vacates the court’s previous decision in Rev. Roake v. Brumley, issued in June by a unanimous three-judge panel. In its ruling then, the court of appeals held that Louisiana’s HB 71 is unconstitutional under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Stone v. Graham, and explained that “indiscriminately” displaying the Ten Commandments in all public-school classrooms across the state would cause an “irreparable” deprivation of the plaintiffs’ rights under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The state and school board defendants subsequently petitioned for rehearing en banc, a procedural mechanism that authorizes a full court of appeals to reconsider rulings issued by three-judge panels. With the grant of the petition yesterday, the case will be reheard by all judges currently sitting on the 5th Circuit.
Represented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel, the plaintiffs in Rev. Roake v. Brumley are a multifaith group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools. The organizations representing the plaintiffs issued the following statement in response to the decision:
“The panel’s unanimous ruling last June was well reasoned and correctly followed binding Supreme Court precedent. We believe there is no reason to revisit it. Nevertheless, we look forward to presenting our clients’ case to the entire court of appeals, and we remain confident that the constitutional values and principles at the heart of the First Amendment, which guarantee religious freedom for all students and families, will prevail in the end. We emphasize that the district court’s preliminary injunction order in the Roake case — where the court found that this law is facially unconstitutional — is not disturbed by the 5th Circuit’s decision to rehear the appeal.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
