Louisiana

Lawsuit challenges Louisiana’s Ten Commandments requirement for schools

Published

1 year ago

June 25, 2024

Lawsuit challenges Louisiana’s Ten Commandments requirement for schools

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — A lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Louisiana challenging the state’s recently passed law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom in public schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union, representing parents of Louisiana public school children, confirmed in a post on social media that it was involved the lawsuit. The New York City law firm Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation are also are plaintiffs, according to CBS News.

“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” the ACLU says in its post on social media. “Louisiana public schools must remain welcoming to all students, regardless of their faith.”

Under the legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry last week, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to display a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” next year.

“There is no longstanding tradition of permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms in Louisiana or the United States more generally,” the lawsuit says. “Indeed, for nearly half a century, it has been well settled that the First Amendment forbids public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in this manner.”

The lawsuit cites the 1980 Supreme Court decision striking down a similar law passed in Kentucky.

It also argues that Louisiana’s law “unconstitutionally pressures 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,” the lawsuit says. “And it substantially interferes with and burdens the right of parents to direct their children’s religious education and upbringing.”

The lawsuit filed Monday seeks a court declaration that the new law, referred to in the lawsuit as HB 71, violates First Amendment clauses forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty. It also seeks an order prohibiting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill has said she is looking forward to defending the state’s law. She issued a statement saying she couldn’t comment directly on the lawsuit because she had not yet seen it.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)

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Louisiana

Rod Walker: Saints’ loss to Dolphins just one chapter in a crazy day for Louisiana football

Published

12 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Press Room

Rod Walker: Saints’ loss to Dolphins just one chapter in a crazy day for Louisiana football

The last day of November will be one to remember for sports fans in Louisiana.

Here’s what all happened on a crazy Sunday that made for a busy day for the folks tasked with putting this newspaper together.

• The New Orleans Saints found their offense in the second half and almost climbed out of a 16-point hole against the Miami Dolphins.

• Cam Jordan found the fountain of youth yet again.

• Kellen Moore found out that receiver Devaughn Vele is indeed on the Saints’ roster.

• LSU found its head coach.

• Tulane found out that it is now in the market for one.

• Oh, and a guy from Northern Ireland (Charlie Smyth) booted a 56-yard field goal on his very first field goal attempt in an NFL game.

Smyth followed that up with a successful onside kick that gave the Saints a chance late in what ended up being a 21-17 loss to the Dolphins. History was on Smyth’s side on the onside kick. The last time the Saints tried one at Hard Rock Stadium was Thomas Morstead’s “Ambush” to start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV in 2010. Smyth’s kick landed right in the arms of Vele, much the same way that many of Tyler Shough’s passes did.

Vele, acquired in a trade with the Denver Broncos in August because the Saints needed a big-bodied receiver, had rarely been used. He had nine catches before Sunday. He almost equaled that in one game, hauling in eight passes for 93 yards and a touchdown. The Saints, unfortunately, weren’t able to move the ball much on their final drive that stalled on a failed fourth-and-1 attempt at the Dolphins’ 36-yard line.

“It was an unfortunate ending,” Moore said afterward.

He certainly wasn’t the only one talking about unfortunate endings. Fans of Ole Miss football were no doubt saying the same thing (except with a whole lot more curse words included) as Lane Kiffin made it official that he was leaving Oxford and heading to Baton Rouge to be LSU’s next football coach. Kiffin was hoping to stick around and coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff but said Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter denied that request.

Meanwhile, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall made it official Sunday that he has accepted the Florida job. Sumrall could have been in a Kiffin-like situation with Tulane headed to the playoffs if they beat North Texas for the American Conference championship Saturday at Yulman Stadium. But the Green Wave administration has decided to let Sumrall stick around and coach Saturday’s game and continue to the playoffs if the Wave advances.

Fan bases at both Ole Miss and Tulane are split on whether their now exes should be allowed to stick around after the divorces.

“We just believe that it’s the right thing to do for our student-athletes,” Tulane athletic director David Harris said in a statement. “We are just really appreciative that he has the love and concern for his players first and foremost in his mind, that he wants to help them finish the right way.”

After that, Sumrall will head to Florida, about five hours north of where the Saints (2-10) were handed yet another loss Sunday.

The Saints’ offense struggled early, gaining just 63 yards in the first half that ended with them trailing 16-0. A bright spot was the 36-year-old Cam Jordan sacking Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa twice. Jordan now has 6½ sacks, the most he’s had since 2022.

He’d much rather have those sacks come with some wins.

“We are a team that keeps fighting,” Jordan said. “When you are fighting an uphill battle, eventually you have to reach the top of the hill. We are taking shots and we are swinging, and you just wish they would fall in our favor.”

The only thing falling in the Saints’ favor is their chances of landing the No. 1 draft pick. With the New York Jets upsetting the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the Saints currently hold the No. 2 draft pick.

The Saints return to Florida next week to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs have won the last three games against the Saints and are looking to make it four straight for the first time in series history.

A Saints’ upset of the Bucs sounds crazy.

Not quite as crazy as this last Sunday in November was, though.

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Louisiana

Louisiana sees reentry housing results but struggles to meet demand

Published

1 day ago

November 30, 2025

Press Room

Louisiana sees reentry housing results but struggles to meet demand

Linda McLain reached the end of her two-year sentence at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in July, but it would be another month before she could leave. It took those 30 extra days for her to find a residential facility that met the terms of her supervised release. Her wait time is an indication […]

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Louisiana prison

Published

2 days ago

November 29, 2025

Press Room

Leslie Harris has missed most milestones in his daughter’s life while serving a decades-long sentence in Louisiana for armed robbery and is unlikely to get out before her prom, her graduation and maybe even her wedding.

But for one night at Louisiana’s largest maximum-security prison, Harris made his own moment with his 17-year-old daughter while donning a custom tux and clutching a bouquet of roses: reuniting at the prison’s first father-daughter dance, where they embraced to Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” at a pink-heavy party this month that was widely shared on social media.

“Seeing her in a dress, crying and running to me just broke me down,” said Harris, who has nine years left on his sentence, in a phone interview from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. “It made me think of all the years I missed out on in her life.”

This photo provided by God Behind Bars shows a prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary embracing a loved one before a father-daughter dance held inside the lockup in Angola, La., on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025.

God Behind Bars via AP

The lockup is the latest in the U.S. to hold a daddy-daughter dance, including one in Washington D.C. that was featured in the Netflix documentary “Daughters” last year. In Louisiana, prison officials say the dance could become another tradition at the rural lockup in Angola, which every October hosts the country’s last remaining prison rodeo. It has more than 6,300 prisoners, including dozens of people on death row, and is on the same grounds where a notorious lockup was converted into an immigration detention facility in September.

Assistant Warden Anne-Marie Easley said she hoped the dance would bring a sense of hope that can be elusive in a prison where many are serving decades-long or life sentences. For some men, it was a chance to reunite with their daughters for the first time in months or even years – an opportunity to rebuild relationships and heal wounds. For others, it meant a night where they wouldn’t be seen as an inmate but rather a dad.

The prison picked nearly 30 inmates to participate due to good behavior, among other factors. Videos posted from the event showed fathers in tuxedos – complete with pink boutonnieres – breaking down in tears as their daughters ran up to them in sparkly dresses, shrieking with excitement. They reunited in the middle of a pink carpet overlayed with petals, with breezy drapes hanging overhead. A dance space was setup in the prison’s Bible college.

Prison Father Daughter Dance — This photo provided by God Behind Bars shows prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary before a father-daughter dance held inside the lockup in Angola, La., on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025.

God Behind Bars via AP

The dance was put on by God Behind Bars, which hosts other reunification events and religious services in prisons nationwide. In videos the group posted before the dance, some prisoners said they wanted to apologize for all the years they missed. Others called the dance the most important prison visit of their lives.

The night included the men surprising their daughters with a line dance after weeks of practice. For Harris, the best part was when he and his daughter slow danced to ‘Butterfly Kisses,’ a song about a dad’s unconditional love for his daughter.

In that moment, Harris said memories rushed back of life before prison, when his daughter was just 2 years old. How she would sleep on his chest, play with his hair and how he would buy her little dresses. Before the night was over, he gave her a Bible with passages he highlighted.

“That’s really the heart of it at the end of the day,” said Jake Bodine, founder of God Behind Bars. “Show these individuals who is counting on them and once they realize the weight of that, they will hold themselves accountable for change.”