Next Week: Louisiana urges full federal appeals court to defend Ten Commandments Entire Fifth Circuit to decide if state can display passive religious symbols in public schools

WASHINGTON – The State of Louisiana will ask the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit next week to protect its ability to display the Ten Commandments in its public school classrooms. In Roake v. Brumley, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Louisiana after it passed a law requiring public schools to display small posters including the Ten Commandments, which acknowledge the Commandments’ influence on American law and history. A federal district court blocked the law, and three judges on the Fifth Circuit left that ruling in place. But last fall, the full Fifth Circuit agreed to rehear the case “en banc,” in front of all active judges on the court. Louisiana is represented by Becket, Attorney General Liz Murrill, and Solicitor General Ben Aguiñaga. 

Religious symbols have been a fixture of American public life since before the Founding. Just after declaring Independence, the Continental Congress tasked Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams with designing a national seal. Although Congress eventually adopted a design for the Great Seal featuring different religious imagery, this committee proposed a seal with imagery drawn directly from the Hebrew Bible. Following that tradition, governments have long included religious symbols, including the Ten Commandments, in public spaces. For example, the Commandments feature prominently on the walls of the Supreme Court.

Louisiana recently passed a law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The displays must contain a context statement explaining the history of the Commandments in American public education, and schools have flexibility in designing them. But before any actual display ever appeared in any classroom, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Louisiana, claiming the displays would harm students by forcing them to be in the presence of religious symbolism.

What: 
Oral Argument in Roake v. Brumley  

Arguing before the court: 
Benjamin Aguiñaga, Solicitor General of Louisiana  

When: 
January 20, 2026, at 1 p.m. CT
 
Where: 
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
En Banc Courtroom
600 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 

 Link to livestream audio: https://5thcircuit.streamguys1.com/enbanc 

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket attorney, contact Ryan Colby at [email protected] or 202-349-7219.