BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A federal judge has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring posters of the Ten Commandments to be placed in Louisiana schools is unconstitutional. Attorney General Liz Murrill had vowed to appeal. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, U.S. District Court Judge John W. deGravelles issued his order and ruling in a 177-page document. In it, he said a law created earlier this year requiring that posters of the Ten Commandments be hung in large, legible letters in every classroom in the state is facially unconstitutional and unconstitutional in all applications. The judge said all defendants in the suit are prohibited from enforcing the law, making rules to hang the posters or requiring that the religious text be hung in all public classrooms. Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are responsible for letting schools know the law is unconstitutional. The plaintiffs have to pay a $100 bond. In a separate order, deGravelles denied a request from the state to strike the testimony of historian Steven Green. The Willamette University in Oregon professor writes on the separation of church and state. He says the Ten Commandments were not a key document used to create law or public education. See reactions to the decision “We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal, as H.B. 71’s implementation deadline is approaching on January 1, 2025," said Murrill. “Religious freedom—the right to choose one’s faith without pressure—is essential to American democracy,” said Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “Today’s ruling ensures that the schools our plaintiff’s children attend will stay focused on learning, without promoting a state-preferred version of Christianity.” The Rev. Darcy Roake, a plaintiff in the case with her husband Adrian Van Young, said they are "pleased and relieved" after the ruling, calling the law "a direct infringement of our religious-freedom rights" in a statement. The governor's office, BESE and the Louisiana Department of Education said they had no comment. 5 ways Trump could reshape the economy What you need to know about the history of the case The Louisiana Legislature approved House Bill No. 71, or Act 676, which requires all classrooms to hang a poster of the Ten Commandments in large, legible print. Lawmakers argue that the document has historic significance independent of religious value. Gov. Jeff Landry signed it on June 19. Shortly afterward, a group sued the date and education leaders in the Middle District of Louisiana to prevent the posters from being hung, arguing that they would infringe on students' religious freedoms. In July at the Republican National Convention, Landry said having the document hanging in classrooms might have prevented Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump, from committing the crime. He said using taxpayer money to defend the state’s new law requiring schools to hang the Ten Commandments in every classroom is a price he’s willing to pay. He argued that the law ultimately aims “to keep kids out of crime, to reduce violence and to bring some civility back to the country and to the world as well.” In August, Landry and Murrill held a news conference, saying they'd asked that the suit be thrown out of court. They brought posters that they said could safely display the commandments without violating anyone's constitutional rights. Among the graphics was a poster using a quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that seemed to justify using the Ten Commandments as a founding document alongside a photo of her serving as a justice. Her family later said it was "misleading." The quote was from something she wrote in eighth grade touting the Charter of the United Nations as a new guiding document. Ginsburg was a strong advocate for the separation of church and state. At a news conference on Monday, Aug. 5, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she's asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that would prevent the state from hanging Ten Commandment posters in all classrooms. She said the suit is premature and pointed to this design and several others on display as options that represent a "constitutional application of the law. One included a photo of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a quote from an editorial Ginsburg wrote in eighth grade.At a news conference on Monday, Aug. 5, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she's asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that would prevent the state from hanging Ten Commandment posters in all classrooms. She said the suit is premature and pointed to this design and several others on display as options that represent a "constitutional application of the law. At a news conference on Monday, Aug. 5, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she's asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that would prevent the state from hanging Ten Commandment posters in all classrooms. She said the suit is premature and pointed to this design and several others on display as options that represent a "constitutional application of the law. One included a photo of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a quote from an editorial Ginsburg wrote in eighth grade.At a news conference on Monday, Aug. 5, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she's asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that would prevent the state from hanging Ten Commandment posters in all classrooms. She said the suit is premature and pointed to this design and several others on display as options that represent a "constitutional application of the law. At a news conference on Monday, Aug. 5, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she's asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit that would prevent the state from hanging Ten Commandment posters in all classrooms. She said the suit is premature and pointed to several posters on display as options that represent a "constitutional application of the law. Landry, at the conference, said the state legislature followed the will of the majority of the people when they passed the law earlier this year. He said families who don't want their kids to see the posters to "tell their child not to look at it." Both sides agreed to wait until Nov. 15 to hang any posters until the judge ruled. Understand the court argument A group of parents and church leaders sued, arguing that the displays would violate the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The law would make an 11” by 14” inch poster with the Ten Commandments on it hang in all public school classrooms, including colleges and universities. A Protestant version from the King James Bible was one of the requirements, and the poster would state that the religious text was “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” The AG argued that the suit should be dismissed because no one had been harmed yet since the displays have not yet gone up and the rules for the display had not been developed. The judge found that he had enough information to determine what the posters will look like, even though the rules had not been finalized, to determine if they will be constitutional. He cited the what, when, where, why and how. The law does not allow a Jewish or Roman Catholic version of the text. It would require the posters be hung year-round in every classroom with no relationship to the subject matter or student age. The commandments were to be the central focus of the documents on display, and they could be funded with public money or private donations. DeGravelles said the historic reasons cited were “undermined by the legislative history and fundraising efforts of the Governor.” The judge specifically noted a fundraising email that Landry sent supporters after the suit was filed, urging them to “ADVANCE the Judeo-Christian values that this nation was built upon.” He cited precedence that judges can take judicial notice of news articles. “Plaintiffs will endure considerable hardship if the Court delays a decision—specifically, a violation of their First Amendment rights,” DeGravelles wrote, clarifying the threat to their rights is real and imminent. Murill also argued that Brumley and BESE had sovereign immunity because there was not an ongoing harm to the plaintiffs and they weren’t in charge of enforcing the law. The judge reiterated there’s an imminent risk of harm. He said Brumley and BESE “have a particular duty to enforce the Act, a willingness to do so, and the ability to compel and constrain others to obey the challenged law.” He said the court had to determine whether there was “any constitutional way to display the Ten Commandments in accordance with the minimum requirements of the Act.” DeGravelles referenced Stone v. Graham, a similar case based in Kentucky, saying young students are impressionable, captive audiences. If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause. U.S. Supreme Court, Stone vs. Graham decision, Nov. 15, 1980 He said the law would also be unconstitutional under Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined the government can’t prevent an individual from exercising their own religious observance while following the Establishment Clause. DeGravelle said he had to determine if the displays were “sectarian, discriminatory, or coercive.” He said the plaintiffs showed there was no history of displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms to lean on, but the law fails because it doesn’t choose documents or a version of the religious text to display “without regard for belief.” Most importantly, he said, it’s coercive. Students are required to attend classes 177 days per year. The complaint against the law argued that the posters pressured students “into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture. It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments—or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that H.B. 71 requires schools to display—do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.” This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available. Latest News Congress returns to finish up the year Premiums for Medicare Part B to rise in 2025: What to know After missing the mark for years, this toy finally makes the Toy Hall of Fame Who will be the next — and potentially last — secretary of Education? Donald Trump's new administration: Who has he chosen so far?