Louisiana teacher asks Supreme Court to stop Ten Commandments displays in classrooms
A Louisiana teacher is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his constitutional challenge to a state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in K-12 and college classrooms.
The posters began going up in classrooms this summer, following the approval of a 2024 law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every K-12, college and university classroom at schools that accept state money. The law was mired in a legal battle until earlier this year, when the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it could go into effect.
Chris Dier, Louisianas’s Teacher of the Year for 2020, filed the motion asking for the Supreme Court to intervene. Dier taught at Chalmette High School when he won the honor and is currently on the faculty at Ben Franklin High School in New Orleans.
“I have spent over 16 years teaching my students that the Constitution protects every one of them — every faith, and no faith,” Dier said. “I respect the Ten Commandments and the place religion holds in millions of Americans’ lives, undoubtedly. But the state cannot turn my classroom into a place to deliver its own religious message or make me the messenger who delivers it.”
In a statement through her spokesman, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill declined to address Dier’s petition but said schools should follow the law.
Following Louisiana’s lead, similar measures requiring Ten Commandments displays were adopted in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas, which have been met with various legal challenges.
