Louisiana’s 10 Commandments Law Marks Step Toward Christian Nationalism

Pretty soon, public school students in Louisiana, from kindergarten up through college, will see the Ten Commandments displayed in every classroom — math, science, even gym. That’s because of a new ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country.

On Feb. 20, the federal appellate court reversed a June decision that had called the 2024 Louisiana law requiring displays of the religious texts in all public school classrooms “plainly unconstitutional” and allowed for a temporary block on the law. (The case had previously been heard by a three judge-panel on the Fifth Circuit but that was vacated after all 17 judges heard the case in January.)

The move marks a win for the Christian nationalist movement, a worldview that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and should remain so, and that the government should enforce it. The ideology is not new, but experts tracking the movement say it is gaining steam across the country, emboldened by the current Supreme Court and the Trump administration. And if this Louisiana Ten Commandments case continues to make its way up to the highest court in the land, it could have a devastating impact on the separation of church and state.

Sophie Bjork-James is an anthropologist and an expert on the religious right and Christian nationalism. She says that the Ten Commandments going up in Louisiana schools is not only a win that shows how much power Christian nationalists are acquiring, it is also a step towards further shifting the country to the right by educating children on Christianity.

“Within Christian nationalism they would see [the recent ruling] as a victory and a step toward changing public education to become Christian,” says Bjork-James. “Which they see as a moral imperative to make the country more in line with their vision of what God wants.”

SINCE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS BELIEVE THAT Christianity is a fundamental part of the founding of the U.S., many challenge the narrative that religious freedom means the separation of church and state. (These claims are often fervently challenged by constitutional and historical experts.) Additionally, Christian nationalists often go as far as saying all moral problems stem from a lack of public Christianity.

“You can see Christian right leaders making claims that we wouldn’t have so many school shootings, there wouldn’t be so much violence, there wouldn’t be drug use, if there was more Christianity in schools,” says Bjork-James.

“Evangelicals have produced a significant amount of content that tells the story of America as one that is blessed by God, has a divine relationship with God and centers Christianity,” she continues. “[They see] the idea that there is supposed to be a separation of church and state as a farce, a lie. And while most historians would refute this, they see [religion in school] as going back to the country’s origins.” 

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has publicly espoused these sorts of views. “The Supreme Court got it wrong about the separation of church and state,” he told me in 2024. “The Ten Commandments are the fabric of civilization and you’re telling me, we can’t hang them in school?” 

He also told a reporter that if the Ten Commandments had been displayed in Thomas Matthew Crooks’ classroom, he may not have attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump in July 2024.

Now, Landry’s state will be the first in the nation to mandate the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom 

“This is a significant shift, because it’s normalizing a particular narrative that erodes the separation of Church and State,” says Bjork-James. ”It’s both a product of shifting norms and also an effort to further shift norms. The fact that the [Ten Commandments law] could actually be implemented is an example of the Christian right’s expansion into state power.”

Bjork-James ties this back to the decimation of abortion rights. One of the pillars of the Christian right for years has been opposing abortion, and when the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, it gave Christian nationalism a big win. “Dobbs was such a huge success for them that it freed up some political attention to expand and experiment with what else they can achieve.”

MELISSA DECKMAN IS THE CEO OF THE PUBLIC Religion Research Institute, which recently released a new map analyzing the spread of Christian nationalism in the country. While the term Christian nationalist was created by academics, and thus many people who share this worldview don’t identify as such, PRRI asked Americans about their belief systems and found that one third of Americans hold views that would qualify as Christian nationalist. The organization also found that a majority of Republicans (56 percent) ascribe to Christian nationalism.

“In the last decade, Christian nationalism has become very embedded within the MAGA movement,” says Deckman. “There’s a sense that these folks are feeling emboldened to enact policies that correspond to their own religious viewpoints.”

Deckman says you can see its spillover effects in a lot of the state legislatures that are trying to break down the wall that separates church and state. 

“There’s been a prolonged movement by conservative Christians to influence the curriculum of America’s classrooms,” says Deckman, who has written extensively about public schools and the Christian right. In the 1960s, the Supreme Court banned school prayer and mandatory Bible readings from public school. “You had a Supreme Court that was far more likely to rule against what they saw as an encroachment of the state violating the establishment clause. Conservative Christians felt that the liberal court was removing God from classrooms.”

In 1980, the Supreme Court decision Stone v Graham said a Kentucky law mandating the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom was “plainly religious in nature” despite arguments, similar to those occurring in Louisiana, that this was about history and morality.

“Now, you have a legal context that’s changed with the a Supreme Court that is looking more favorably of intermixing religion and education in a lot of ways,” says Deckman, pointing to a 2022 decision by the court to allow a football coach to pray with his students and the 2025 decision to let parents opt out of a curriculum that went over LGBTQ issues. 

TEXAS AND ARKANSAS ALSO HAVE TENCommandments laws on the books that are facing legal challenges. With Louisiana, this law is ripe to go all the way up to the Supreme Court for review. But right now, the Fifth Circuit’s recent ruling stopped short of deciding the constitutionality of posting the Ten Commandments. The ruling merely said it’s premature to decide if any harm was caused, since the posters were never allowed to go up and the judges couldn’t know the exact details of what the displays could look like.

Attorney General Liz Murrill has provided examples of posters that she says comply with the law, including posters that incorporate Mean Girls’ Regina George, Hamilton playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, and quotes attributed to late SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which her granddaughter has told us was “misleading the public.” Under the Louisiana law, the Ten Commandments must be depicted “in a large, easily readable font,” and the poster can be no smaller than 11 by 14 inches. Posters will be donated to the local school districts, who will ultimately decide which to display. 

“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial,” Murrill tells Rolling Stone in a statement. “My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally. Louisiana public schools should follow the law,”

However, this puts schools in a tough position, poised between complying with the state law, but knowing that once they do it’s only a matter of time before a lawsuit ensues. 

The ACLU, Americans United and the Freedom from Religion Foundation are representing the plaintiffs in the Ten Commandment lawsuit, Roarke v. Brumley. “Today’s ruling is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,” their joint statement says. “We will continue fighting for the religious freedom of Louisiana’s families.”