Roake v. Brumley
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Roake v. Brumley, 141 F.4th 614 (5th Cir. 2025)
Roake v. Brumley
Opinion
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United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
____________ FILED
June 20, 2025
No. 24-30706
____________ Lyle W. Cayce
Clerk
Darcy Roake, Reverend, on behalf themselves and on behalf
of their minor children, real party in interest A.V., real party
in interest S.V.; Adrian Van Young, on behalf of themselves and
on behalf of their minor children, real party in interest A.V., real
party in interest S.V.; Mamie Broadhurst, Reverend, on
behalf of themselves and on behalf of their minor child, real party in
interest N.W.; Richard Williams, Reverend, on behalf of
themselves and on behalf of their minor child, real party in interest
N.W.; Jeff Sims, Reverend, on behalf of himself and on behalf of his
minor children, real party in interest A.S., real party in
interest C.S. 1, real party in interest C.S. 2; Jennifer
Harding, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of their minor child, real
party in interest A.O.; Benjamin Owens, on behalf of themselves
and on behalf of their minor child, real party in interest A.O.;
David Hawley, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of their minor children
real party in interest A.H., real party in interest L.H.;
Erin Hawley, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of their minor children,
real party in interest A.H, real party in interest L.H.;
Dustin McCrory, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of his minor
children, real party in interest E.M.; real party in
interest P.M., real party in interest L.M.; Gary
Sernovitz, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of their minor child, real
party in interest T.S.; Molly Pulda, on behalf of themselves and
on behalf of their minor child. real party in interest T.S.;
Christy Alkire, on behalf of herself and on hehalf of her minor child,
real party in interest L.A.; Joshua Herlands, on behalf of
himself and on behalf of his minor children, real party in interest
E.H., real party in interest J.H.,
Plaintiffs—Appellees,
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versus
Cade Brumley, in his official capacity as the Louisiana State
Superintendent of Education; Conrad Appel, in his official capacity as a
member of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
(LSBESE); Judy Armstrong, in her official capacity as a member of the
LSBESE; Kevin Berken, in his official capacity as a member of the
LSBESE; Preston Castille, in his official capacity as a member of
LSBESE; Simone Champagne, in her official capacity as a member of the
LSBESE; Sharon Latten-Clark, in her official capacity as a member
of the LSBESE; Lance Harris, in his official capacity as a member of
LSBESE; Paul Hollis, Louisiana State Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education; Sandy Holloway,
in her official capacity as a member of the LSBESE; Stacey Melerine, in
her official capacity as a member of the LSBESE; Ronnie Morris, in his
official capacity as a member of the LSBESE; East Baton Rouge
Parish School Board; Livingston Parish School Board;
Vernon Parish School Board; St. Tammany Parish
School Board,
Defendants—Appellants.
______________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Louisiana
USDC No. 3:24-CV-517
______________________________
Before Dennis, Haynes, and Ramirez, Circuit Judges.
Irma Carrillo Ramirez, Circuit Judge:
Parents and students challenge a statute requiring public schools to
permanently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom in
Louisiana. The district court found the statute facially unconstitutional and
preliminarily enjoined its enforcement. We AFFIRM.
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I
A
The Louisiana governor signed House Bill 71, Act. No. 676 (H.B. 71)
into law in June 2024. In pertinent part, it provides:
(1) No later than January 1, 2025, each public school governing
authority shall display the Ten Commandments in each
classroom in each school under its jurisdiction. The nature of
the display shall be determined by each governing authority
with a minimum requirement that the Ten Commandments
shall be displayed on a poster or framed document that is at
least eleven inches by fourteen inches. The text of the Ten
Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster or
framed document and shall be printed in a large, easily readable
font.
(2) The text shall read as follows:
“The Ten Commandments
I AM the LORD thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long
upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy
neighbor’s.”
La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(1)–(B)(2).
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The Ten Commandments 1 must be displayed with a “context
statement” about the “History of the Ten Commandments in American
Public Education,” 2 and “may” be displayed with “the Mayflower
Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance.”
Id. § 17:2124(B)(3)–(B)(4). Public school governing authorities are not
required to pay for the displays. Instead, they can “accept donated funds to
purchase the displays” or “accept donated displays.” Id. § 17:2124(B)(5).
H.B. 71 tasks the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
_____________________
1
Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that H.B. 71 adopts a Protestant version of the Ten
Commandments. Their expert agreed: “[I]t is my expert opinion that the version of the
Ten Commandments adopted under H.B. 71 is Protestant and not nondenominational.”
Louisiana offered no rebuttal.
2
The “context statement” reads:
The Ten Commandments were a prominent part of American
public education for almost three centuries. Around the year 1688, The
New England Primer became the first published American textbook and
was the equivalent of a first grade reader. The New England Primer was used
in public schools throughout the United States for more than one hundred
fifty years to teach Americans to read and contained more than forty
questions about the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments were also included in public school
textbooks published by educator William McGuffey, a noted university
president and professor. A version of his famous McGuffey Readers was
written in the early 1800s and became one of the most popular textbooks
in the history of American education, selling more than one hundred
million copies. Copies of the McGuffey Readers are still available today.
The Ten Commandments also appeared in textbooks published by
Noah Webster in which were widely used in American public schools along
with America’s first comprehensive dictionary that Webster also
published. His textbook, The American Spelling Book, contained the Ten
Commandments and sold more than one hundred million copies for use by
public school children all across the nation and was still available for use in
American public schools in the year 1975.
Id. § 17:2124(B)(3).
4
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(BESE) with adopting rules and regulations to ensure the statute’s “proper
implementation.” Id. § 17:2124(B)(6)(a). H.B. 71 also applies to
postsecondary institutions. See id. § 17:2124(C)(1).
H.B. 71 includes several legislative findings and a declaration of
legislative intent, which, in relevant part, provide:
(4) Recognizing the historical role of the Ten Commandments
accords with our nation’s history and faithfully reflects the
understanding of the founders of our nation with respect to the
necessity of civic morality to a functional self-government. . . .
(5) Including the Ten Commandments in the education of our
children is part of our state and national history, culture, and
tradition.
(6) The text of the Ten Commandments set forth in Subsection
B of this Section is identical to the text of the Ten
Commandments monument that was upheld by the Supreme
Court . . . in Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677, 688 (2005).
....
(9) It is the Legislature’s intent to apply the decision set forth
by the Supreme Court . . . in Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677
(2005), to continue the rich tradition and ensure that the
students in our public schools may understand and appreciate
the foundational documents of our state and national
government.
Id. § 17:2124(A)(4)–(A)(9).
B
On June 24, 2024, a group of multi-faith and non-religious Louisiana
parents 3 brought suit on their own behalf (Parents) and on behalf of their
_____________________
3
Plaintiffs subscribe to a wide range of religious and non-religious views including
Unitarian Universalism, Judaism, Reform Judaism, Presbyterian Christianity, atheism,
non-religiousness, and agnostic atheism. Plaintiffs allege that the Protestant version of the
5
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minor children (Students) (collectively, Plaintiffs), challenging the
constitutionality of H.B. 71 under the Establishment Clause and Free
Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. They sued Cade Brumley, who is
the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education (Superintendent), several
BESE members in their official capacities, and five parish school boards
(collectively, Louisiana). 4 After filing their complaint, Plaintiffs moved for
preliminary injunctive relief, and proffered the expert report of Dr. Steven K.
Green, a law professor and constitutional and religious historian. Dr. Green’s
report concluded that there is no evidence of a longstanding historical
tradition of permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public school
classrooms.
Louisiana moved to exclude Dr. Green’s expert testimony, moved to
dismiss the complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and
12(b)(6), opposed the preliminary injunction, and alternatively moved to stay
the injunction pending appeal. It argued that Plaintiffs’ claims were unripe,
Plaintiffs lacked standing, and the Superintendent and the BESE-member
defendants were entitled to sovereign immunity, and it challenged the merits
of Plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims.
_____________________
Ten Commandments set out in H.B. 71 differs from the version observed by most adherents
of the Catholic and Jewish faiths. They further allege that many other religions do not
regard the commandments as part of their belief system at all.
4
Plaintiffs sued East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, Livingston Parish School
Board, Vernon Parish School Board, St. Tammany Parish School Board, and Orleans Parish
School Board. Because Orleans Parish School Board is not a party to this appeal and
independently moved to dismiss the complaint and opposed the preliminary injunction
before the district court, “Louisiana” refers to all the defendants, excluding the Orleans
Parish School Board. We held the Orleans Parish School Board’s appeal in abeyance
pending our resolution of this appeal. See Abeyance Order, Orleans Par. Sch. Bd. v. Brumley,
No. 24-30779 (5th Cir. Dec. 19, 2024), Dkt. No. 11.
6
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After a hearing, the district court denied Louisiana’s motions and
issued a preliminary injunction. The preliminary injunction prohibited
Louisiana from enforcing H.B. 71. 5 The court also ordered the
Superintendent and the BESE-member defendants to provide notice of its
ruling to all Louisiana public schools.
Louisiana appeals the entry of a preliminary injunction and the denial
of its motion to dismiss and motion to exclude ' $)/$.Cexpert testimony.
II
This court has jurisdiction to review “final decisions” under
28 U.S.C. § 1291and interlocutory orders under28 U.S.C. § 1292
(a)(1). A preliminary injunction is an appealable interlocutory order. See28 U.S.C. § 1292
(a)(1). Ordinarily, the denial of a motion to dismiss is not an appealable final decision under § 1291 as it is “neither a ruling on the merits nor an effective termination of all or any discrete part of the district court proceedings.” Save the Bay, Inc. v. U.S. Army,639 F.2d 1100, 1103
(5th Cir. 1981) (per curiam). “But to the extent the underpinnings of [Louisiana’s] motion [to dismiss] are inextricably intertwined with the district court’s subsequent rulings challenged on appeal, . . . we have jurisdiction to address those issues.” Jiao v. Xu,28 F.4th 591
, 596 (5th Cir. 2022).
Louisiana opposed the preliminary injunction on the same grounds
asserted in its motion to dismiss, and the district court ruled on the motions
simultaneously. Accordingly, we have jurisdiction over those rulings.
_____________________
5
Because H.B. 71 would have gone into effect on January 1, 2025, La. R.S.
§ 17:2124(B)(1), if the preliminary injunction were vacated, the statute would go into effect
immediately.
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III
Louisiana challenges the denial of its motion to dismiss for lack of
subject matter jurisdiction, contending that the district court lacked subject
matter jurisdiction based on ripeness, standing, and sovereign immunity.
We review the denial of a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter
jurisdiction de novo. Ramming v. United States, 281 F.3d 158, 161(5th Cir. 2001) (per curiam). Plaintiffs, as “the party asserting jurisdiction,” bear the burden of proof.Id.
A
Dʫ *0-/.#*0' $.($.. . !*-' &*!B-$+ ) ..C2# )/# . $.
abstract or hypothetical.” Orix Credit All., Inc. v. Wolfe, 212 F.3d 891, 895(5th Cir. 2000) (quoting New Orleans Pub. Serv., Inc. v. Council of New Orleans,833 F.2d 583
, 586–87 (5th Cir. 1987)). To assess ripeness, courts evaluate “(1) Bthe fitness of the issues for judicial decision[,]’ and (2) Bthe hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration.’” Braidwood Mgmt., Inc. v. Equal Emp. Opportunity Comm’n,70 F.4th 914
, 930 (5th Cir. 2023) (quoting Abbott Lab’ys v. Gardner,387 U.S. 136, 149
(1967), abrogated on other grounds by Califano v. Sanders,430 U.S. 99
(1977)).
1
On the first prong, “a ' $($.B!$/!*-%0 $ $ ' $.$*)C$!$/+- . )/.
pure question of law that needs no further factual development.” Braidwood
Mgmt., 70 F.4th at 930 (citing New Orleans Pub. Serv., 833 F.2d at 586–87).
This means that a claim is ripe so long as it is not “contingent [on] future
events that may not occur as anticipated, or indeed may not occur at all.”
Book People, Inc. v. Wong, 91 F.4th 318, 333 (5th Cir. 2024) (alteration in
original) (quoting Braidwood Mgmt., 70 F.4th at 930).
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Louisiana is wrong that further factual development is needed in this
case. Citing Staley v. Harris County, 485 F.3d 305 (5th Cir. 2007) (en banc),
Louisiana argues that Plaintiffs’ claims are not fit for judicial decision because
Plaintiffs have not yet encountered an H.B. 71 poster—they do not know
what any given display will look like, what context may accompany the Ten
Commandments, or where in any specific classroom a display may be placed.
Staley provides no support.
Staley concerned the constitutionality of a monument displaying a
Christian Bible at a county courthouse in Texas. 485 F.3d at 307. A panel of this court held that displaying the monument violated the Establishment Clause, but days before the case would be reheard en banc, the courthouse placed the monument in storage.Id.
Our en banc court held that “any dispute over a probable redisplay of the . . . monument [was] not ripe because there [were] no facts before [it] to determine whether such a redisplay might violate the Establishment Clause.”Id. at 309
. “In the absence of this evidence,” the en banc court determined it was “unable to conduct the fact-intensive and context-specific analysis” required in Establishment Clause jurisprudence.Id.
Plaintiffs’ lawsuit targets H.B. 71’s minimum requirements, which
reflect “when, where, or under what circumstance[s]” the Ten
Commandments are to be displayed. Id. at 307.
What will be displayed? “The text of the Ten Commandments”—the
exact Protestant version of which is provided by the statute, La. R.S.
§ 17:2124(B)(1)–(B)(2);
How will it be displayed? As “the central focus” of a “poster or framed
document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches,” and
“printed in a large, easily readable font,” along with a “context
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statement,” also provided by the statute, id. § 17:2124(B)(1), (B)(3)
(emphases added);
When will it be displayed? “No later than January 1, 2025,” and for the
duration of the entire schoolyear, id. § 17:2124(B)(1);
Where will it be displayed? In every Louisiana public school classroom,
regardless of class subject matter, student age, or student grade,
somewhere that it can be seen by students, 6 id;
Why will it be displayed? Purportedly for historical reasons, see id.
§ 17:2124(A)(9).
This case is not like Staley where “no decision ha[d] been made
regarding any aspect of the future display of the [stored] monument.” 485
F.3d at 309 (emphases added). The text of H.B. 71 provides sufficient
information for a fact-intensive and context-specific analysis. Plaintiffs’
claims are fit for judicial decision; the first ripeness prong is satisfied.
2
On the second ripeness prong, Plaintiffs have shown hardship should
we withhold court consideration.
“The Supreme Court has found hardship to inhere in legal harms,
such as the harmful creation of legal rights or obligations; practical harms on
_____________________
6
Notably, Louisiana does not suggest that there is a possibility that the displays
may not be seen by students. During oral argument, Louisiana argued that “there is a
fundamental difference between, for example, an 11-inch by 14-inch poster in the back
corner of a classroom, and an 11-foot by 14-foot poster in the front wall of the classroom.”
To “display” something means “to place or spread (something) for people to see.”
Display, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://perma.cc/955S-KS6N. Because
H.B. 71 requires that the Ten Commandments be “display[ed]” in each classroom and “be
printed in a large, easily readable font,” La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(1), the statutory text
dictates that the posters be placed within students’ view.
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the interests advanced by the party seeking relief; and the harm of being
B!*- N O . . . to modify [one’s] behavior in order to avoid future adverse
consequences.’” Choice Inc. of Tex. v. Greenstein, 691 F.3d 710, 715(5th Cir. 2012) (alterations in original) (quoting Texas v. United States,497 F.3d 491, 499
(5th Cir. 2007)). Whether the challenged statute or regulation “inflicts significant practical harm upon the interests that [Plaintiffs] advance[]” is “an important consideration.” Ohio Forestry Ass’n v. Sierra Club,523 U.S. 726
, 733–34 (1998).
Here, Plaintiffs allege that the displays violate their rights under the
First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. “The loss of First Amendment
freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes
irreparable injury.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373(1976). Absent judicial intervention, Louisiana will implement H.B. 71. As a result, Students will be subjected to displays that accord with the statute’s minimum display requirements, in every classroom during every school day. H.B. 71 therefore inflicts significant practical harm on Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. See id; Espinoza v. Mont. Dep’t of Revenue,591 U.S. 464
, 486 (2020) (recognizing D/# -$"#/.*!+ - )/./* $- /B/# - '$"$*0.0+ -$)"$)"C*!/# $- #$' - )E (quoting Wisconsin v. Yoder,406 U.S. 205
, 213–14 (1972))). Plaintiffs have demonstrated that there is hardship in withholding consideration sufficient to “justify judicial intervention.” See Pearson v. Holder,624 F.3d 683
, 684
(5th Cir. 2010) (“[T]he ripeness inquiry focuses on whether an injury that
has not yet occurred is sufficiently likely to happen to justify judicial
intervention.” (alteration in original) (citation omitted)); Braidwood Mgmt.,
70 F.4th at 931–32 (“[L]itigants - )/$/' /*- '$ !2# - /# 4BD- ( $)
under a constant threat” that government officials will use their power’ to
enforce the law against them. Therefore, plaintiffs’ claims are ripe.”
(footnote omitted)).
Plaintiffs’ claims are ripe; the district court did not err.
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B
Louisiana next challenges whether Plaintiffs have standing to press
their Establishment Clause claim, focusing on the injury-in-fact element.
To establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must show “an injury in
fact” that is “fairly traceable to the challenged action” and “redress[able] by
a favorable decision.” Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560–61 (1992) (citation modified). The injury-in-fact element “ensure[s] that the plaintiff # . B+ -.*) './ & $)/# *0/ *( *!/# *)/-*1 -.47CESusan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus,573 U.S. 149
, 158 (2014) (quoting Warth v. Seldin,422 U.S. 490, 498
(1975)). Accordingly, “an injury must be B *) - / 6+ -/$ 0' -$5 6 and actual or imminent.’” Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l USA,568 U.S. 398, 409
(2013) (citation omitted). 7
1
Louisiana’s argument that Plaintiffs lack standing to press their
Establishment Clause claims is two-fold: First, it argues that in cases
involving religious displays, allegations of future encounters are insufficient
for purposes of establishing standing. Second, citing non-binding, minority-
view Supreme Court opinions, it contends that the “offended observer
_____________________
7
Although Louisiana only challenges this element, we must still ensure the other
standing requirements are satisfied. See Lujan, 504 U.S. at 559 (“[The Constitution] limits
/# %0-$. $ /$*) *! ! - ' *0-/. /* B . .C ) B*)/-*1 -.$ .7CEM7 # $./-$ / *0-/
found that Plaintiffs’ alleged injuries were traceable to the action of each defendant because
the BESE-member defendants are required to “adopt rules and regulations . . . to ensure
the proper implementation” of H.B. 71, La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(6)(a), and the
Superintendent is required to “[i]mplement the policies and programs of the board and the
laws affecting schools under the jurisdiction of the board,” id. § 17:22(3). The district court
found redressability because “it is highly likely” that Plaintiffs’ alleged injuries would be
remedied by an injunction prohibiting the display of the Ten Commandments as required
by H.B. 71 and implementation of rules regarding the displays. We find no error.
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standing” doctrine is “profoundly wrong” and urges that we overturn our
“offended observer” precedent. We address each argument in turn.
a
i
Parts of the Ten Commandments include basic principles regarding
criminal conduct that are part of a civilized society, such as the prohibition
against murder. However, they come from religious texts and include
commandments that have clear religious import, such as requiring worship
of one God and keeping the Sabbath holy. Their display in public school
classrooms, as required by H.B. 71, qualifies as a religious display.
Unwanted exposure to government-sponsored religious displays and
exercises can, under certain circumstances, violate a plaintiff’s First
Amendment rights. See, e.g., Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668(1984) (examining the constitutionality of a Nativity scene displayed in a shopping center during the holiday season); County of Allegheny v. Am. C.L. Union Greater Pittsburgh Chapter,492 U.S. 573
, 598–602 (1989) (permanently enjoining a county from displaying a Nativity scene in the county courthouse, but permitting a menorah to be displayed outside of a county building), abrogated on other grounds by Town of Greece v. Galloway,572 U.S. 565
(2014); Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe,530 U.S. 290
(2000) (holding unconstitutional student-led and student-initiated prayer announced over the speaker system before football games). Because “government speech must comport with the Establishment Clause,” Pleasant Grove City v. Summum,555 U.S. 460, 468
(2009), “Establishment Clause injury can occur when a person encounters the Government’s endorsement of religion.” Moore v. Bryant,853 F.3d 245, 250
(5th Cir. 2017); see e.g., Murray v. City of Austin,947 F.2d 147
, 151–52 (5th Cir. 1991) (finding standing to challenge
religious insignia where plaintiff encountered insignia on utility bill); Freedom
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From Religion Found., Inc. v. Mack, 49 F.4th 941, 949–50 (5th Cir. 2022)
(finding standing where plaintiff had an “ongoing confrontation” with prayer
ceremony in courtroom).
Confrontation with a religious display or exercise satisfies the injury-
in-fact requirement of standing only if the plaintiff can “identify [a] personal
injury suffered by [the plaintiff] as a consequence of the alleged constitutional
error.” Valley Forge Christian Coll. v. Ams. United for Separation of Church &
State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 485(1982); see Barber v. Bryant,860 F.3d 345, 353
(5th Cir. 2017) (“A plaintiff has standing to challenge a religious display 2# - #$../$"( /$ $)%0-4- .0'/.!-*( Bpersonal[] confront[ation]’ with the display.” (alterations in original) (citation omitted)). This means that alleging a confrontation, alone, is insufficient. Naked allegations that the Constitution has been violated are also insufficient. Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 485–86. Rather, in Establishment Clause cases, the injury is being “personally exposed” to a government’s religious message “with which [a plaintiff] disagrees, or . . . has had to assume a burden to avoid.” Carl H. Esbeck, Unwanted Exposure to Religious Expression by Government: Standing & the Establishment Clause, 7 Charleston L. Rev. 607, 633 (2013); id. at 637 (“A conflict between belief and message is the basis of adversity between plaintiff and her government where the basic problem is government taking sides on a religious question.”); see e.g., Sch. Dist. of Abington Twp. v. Schempp,374 U.S. 203
, 211–12, 224 n.9 (1963) (atheist family and Unitarian family had standing to challenge statute requiring that the Holy Bible and Lord’s Prayer be read at the start of school day); Lee v. Weisman,505 U.S. 577, 599
(1992) (“The sole question presented is whether [under the
Establishment Clause] a religious exercise may be conducted at a graduation
ceremony in circumstances where . . . young graduates who object are
induced to conform.”). And in the public school context, a government’s
injurious religious message “carr[ies] a particular risk of indirect coercion.”
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Lee, 505 U.S. at 592; Sch. Dist. of City of Grand Rapids v. Ball,473 U.S. 373, 383
(1985) (discussing “the sensitive relationship between government and religion in the education of our children” and noting that “[t]he government’s activities in this area can have a magnified impact on impressionable young minds”), overruled on other grounds by Agostini v. Felton,521 U.S. 203
(1997).
ii
“An allegation of future injury may suffice [to satisfy Article III] if
the threatened injury is certainly impending, or there is a substantial risk that
the harm will occur.” Driehaus, 573 U.S. at 158 (internal quotation marks and
citation omitted); accord. Babbitt v. United Farm Workers Nat’l. Union, 442
77flm6fmlLemkmMLDʪ0/BN*O) * .)*/# 1 /* 2 $//# *).0(( /$*)
of threatened injury to obtain preventive relief. If the injury is certainly
impending, that is enough.’” (alteration in original) (quoting Pennsylvania v.
West Virginia, 262 U.S. 553, 593(1923), aff’d,263 U.S. 350
(1923))); Clapper, 568 U.S. at hdm LDNO # 1 - + / '4 - $/ - / /# / B/#- / ) $)%0-4 must be certainly impending to constitute injury in fact . . . .’”); Dep’t of Com. v. New York,588 U.S. 752
, 767 (2019) (holding States had standing to bring action based on “primarily future injuries”); FDA v. All. for Hippocratic Med.,602 U.S. 367, 381
(2024) (“Moreover, the injury must be actual or imminent . . . meaning that the injury must have already occurred or be likely to occur soon.” (emphasis added)). So, too, can allegations of future confrontations satisfy the injury-in-fact element of standing. This is particularly true when a plaintiff seeks prospective relief. See All. for Hippocratic Med.,602 U.S. at 381
.
In School District of Abington Township v. Schempp, the Supreme Court
invalidated two statutes requiring that Bible verses be read to students over
the school’s intercommunications system at the start of every school day. 374
15
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No. 24-30706
U.S. 203. Students were “asked to stand and join in repeating the prayer in unison,” but could excuse themselves either by stepping out of the classroom or simply not participating upon a parent’s written request.Id. at 207
.
Finding that the plaintiffs had standing to challenge the statutes under the
Establishment Clause, the Supreme Court said:
It goes without saying that the laws and practices involved here
can be challenged only by persons having standing to
complain. . . . The parties here are school children and their
parents, who are directly affected by the laws and practices
against which their complaints are directed. These interests
surely suffice to give the parties standing to complain.
Id.at 224 n.9 (citations omitted). The Court explained that “[t]he plaintiffs in Schempp had standing, not [merely] because their complaint rested on the Establishment Clause . . . but because impressionable schoolchildren were subjected to unwelcome religious exercises or were forced to assume special burdens to avoid them.” Valley Forge,454 U.S. at 486
n.22; see also Lee,505 U.S. at 584
(finding a “live and justiciable controversy” based on an alleged
future injury where the plaintiff challenging a policy permitting clergy
members to pray during middle and high school graduations was enrolled at
a school where it was “likely, if not certain, that an invocation and
benediction [would] be conducted at . . . graduation”).
We have previously held that a plaintiff need not wait for “actual
implementation of [a] statute” or an “actual violation[] of his rights” to seek
relief. Ingebretsen v. Jackson Pub. Sch. Dist., 88 F.3d 274, 278 (5th Cir. 1996).
Ingebretsen involved a pre-implementation challenge to a Mississippi statute
permitting “student-initiated voluntary prayer” during school-related
student events under the Establishment Clause. Id. at 277–78 (citation
omitted). Rejecting Mississippi’s argument that the plaintiff lacked standing
because the statute had not yet been implemented, we held that “[t]here
16
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No. 24-30706
[was] no need for [the plaintiff] to wait for actual implementation of the
statute and actual violations of his rights under the First Amendment where
/# ./ /0/ B( & .$) ++-*+-$ / "*1 -)( )/$)1*'1 ( )/$)- '$"$*0. !! $-.
inevitable.’” Id. (citing Karen B. v. Treen, 653 F.2d 897, 902(5th Cir. 1981), aff’d,455 U.S. 913
(1982)); see also Barber,860 F.3d at 357
(“Future injuries
)+-*1$ /# .$.!*-./ ) $)"6 0//# 4B(0./ -/ $)'4$(+ ) $)"/*
constitute injury in fact[.]’”). 8
Louisiana argues that Staley and Doe v. Tangipahoa Parish School
Board, 494 F.3d 494 (5th Cir. 2007) (en banc), overturned Ingebretsen, so
Plaintiffs must supply proof of an actual encounter with an H.B. 71 display to
establish standing. At the outset, we note that Louisiana does not grapple
with Schempp—a future injury case where the Supreme Court found standing
to press an Establishment Clause claim. Nevertheless, Staley and Doe are
both distinguishable and neither decision purported to overturn Ingebretsen,
so Ingebretsen remains good law.
Staley addressed mootness and ripeness—not standing. See 485 F.3d
at 309. Doe involved a challenge to a school board’s practice of opening its meetings with a prayer. Doe v. Tangipahoa Par. Sch. Bd.,473 F.3d 188, 191
(5th Cir. 2006), rev’d en banc,494 F.3d 494
(5th Cir. 2007). We held that the
plaintiff, whose sons attended schools under the board’s jurisdiction, lacked
_____________________
8
Louisiana cites Barber for the proposition that, in religious display cases, this
court has “required an encounter with the offending item or action to confer standing.”
See 860 F.3d at 353. But the quoted language cannot be divorced from its accompanying context. Barber involved a Mississippi statute prohibiting any discriminatory action against persons who acted in accordance with certain beliefs listed in a subsection of the bill.Id.
at 350–51. This court held that the plaintiffs lacked standing because “[t]he beliefs listed in that section exist only in the statute itself.”Id. at 354
. We even distinguished the plaintiffs’ injuries from those alleged in religious display cases, concluding that “religious-display cases [did] not provide a basis for standing to challenge the endorsement of beliefs that exist only in the text of a statute.”Id.
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standing to challenge the invocations because even after a trial on the merits,
there was insufficient proof in the record that he or his sons had been exposed
to the invocations. 494 F.3d at 497. Doe was not a pre-implementation facial
challenge, and the issue was not whether the plaintiffs would be injured by the
prayers if they were to occur in the future. Instead, the allegedly injurious
invocations had occurred “since at least 1973,” 473 F.3d at 192, but the
plaintiffs had not proven that they had ever witnessed them or would in the
future. See 494 F.3d at 497–98.
The precedents of the Supreme Court and this court establish that, in
an Establishment Clause case, a plaintiff can generally satisfy the injury-in-
fact element of standing when he experiences—or certainly will
experience—unwanted exposure to government-sponsored religious
displays or exercises in the course of his regular activities. See Schempp, 374
U.S. at 224n.9; Lee,505 U.S. at 584
; Ingebretsen, 88 F.3d at 277–78.
iii
Here, H.B. 71 requires that the Ten Commandments be permanently
displayed in every classroom of every public elementary, middle, and high
school in Louisiana. Under Louisiana’s compulsory education laws, students
must attend school for at least 177 days per year, La. R.S. § 17:154.1(A)(1),
and legal guardians must “assure the attendance of the[ir] child[ren] in
regularly assigned classes during regular school hours” or be fined or
imprisoned, id. § 17:221(A)(1)(b)–(A)(1)(c). If H.B. 71 goes into effect, 9
impressionable Students will confront a display of the Ten Commandments
for nearly every hour of every school day of their public school education in
the course of their regular activities. Plaintiffs allege that H.B. 71’s version of
_____________________
9
Absent a preliminary injunction, H.B. 71 would currently be in effect. See
id. § 17:2124(B)(1).
18
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No. 24-30706
the Ten Commandments is contrary to the religious and non-religious beliefs
they hold. H.B. 71 does not provide a means for students to avoid the displays
or avoid unwanted exposure to a government-sponsored religious display.
Students have shown standing. See Schempp, 374 U.S. at 211–12, 224 n.9; Lee,
505 U.S. at 599.
Parents have likewise pleaded an injury-in-fact sufficient to confer
standing to assert their Establishment Clause claims. Because of Students’
regular exposure with the H.B. 71 displays, Parents are “directly affected”
by the challenged statute. Schempp, 374 U.S. at 224n.9; see Fleischfresser v. Dirs. of Sch. Dist. 200,15 F.3d 680, 684
(7th Cir. 1994) (holding that parents have standing to allege an Establishment Clause claim where an “impermissible establishment of religion might inhibit their right to direct the religious training of their children”); Steele v. Van Buren Pub. Sch. Dist.,845 F.2d 1492
, 1495 (8th Cir. 1988) (holding plaintiff’s claim remained in
controversy because she had a “parental interest in having her children
educated in a public school free of religious activities”).
We find no error in the district court’s ruling that Plaintiffs
demonstrated standing to assert their Establishment Clause claims.
b
Louisiana contends that Plaintiffs cannot establish “offended
observer standing,” as characterized by non-binding, minority-view
Supreme Court opinions. It nevertheless urges us to reconsider our
“offended observer” precedents in light of Kennedy v. Bremerton School
District, 597 U.S. 507(2022), which overruled the test announced in Lemon v. Kurtzman,403 U.S. 602
(1971), for assessing Establishment Clause
19
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No. 24-30706
claims,10 and because the doctrine is “profoundly wrong.” 11 Louisiana’s
arguments fail at the threshold.
i
The Supreme Court has never expressly and formally recognized
“offended observer standing” in a majority opinion; this term appears only
in non-binding minority opinions. See City of Ocala v. Rojas, 143 S. Ct. 764(2023) (Mem.) (Gorsuch, J., statement regarding denial of certiorari) (Thomas, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari); Am. Legion v. Am. Humanist Ass’n,588 U.S. 29
, 79–89 (2019) (Gorsuch, J., concurring in
the judgment); Espinoza, 591 U.S. at 495 (Thomas, J., concurring). In a
concurrence, one of the Supreme Court’s members has stated that under the
“offended observer” standing theory, “offense alone ,0 '$!$ . . B *) - /
and particularized’ injury sufficient to confer standing” and it therefore has
no basis in law. Am. Legion, 588 U.S. at 80 (Gorsuch, J., concurring in the
judgment) (emphasis added); 12 see also City of Ocala, 143 S. Ct. at 767
_____________________
10
In Kennedy, the Supreme Court declared that it had “long ago abandoned Lemon
and its endorsement test offshoot.” See 597 U.S. at 534.
11
See Post, at 1–4 (Dennis, J., concurring).
12
The American Legion concurrence argues,
Lower courts invented offended observer standing for Establishment
Clause cases in the 1970s in response to . . . Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S.
602 (1971). Lemon held that whether governmental action violates the
Establishment Clause depends on its (1) purpose, (2) effect, and
(3) potential to “excessive[ly] . . . entangl[e]” church and state, a standard
[the] Court came to understand as prohibiting the government from doing
anything that a “reasonable observer” might perceive as “endorsing”
religion. And lower courts reasoned that, if the Establishment Clause
forbids anything a reasonable observer would view as an endorsement of
religion, then such an observer must be able to sue. Here alone, lower
20
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(Thomas, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari) (“In every other area,
2 # 1 ) ' -/# /B*!! ). '*) N$.O$).0!!$ $ )//* *)1 4./ ) $)"7CE
(citation omitted)).
Plaintiffs allege more than “offense alone,” however. As noted, if
H.B. 71 goes into effect, Students will be subjected to unwelcome displays of
the Ten Commandments for the entirety of their public school education.
There is no opt-out option. Plaintiffs are not mere bystanders who have
“fail[ed] to identify any personal injury suffered by them as a consequence of
the alleged constitutional error, other than the psychological consequence
presumably produced by observation of conduct with which [they]
disagree[].” Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 485; seeid.
at 486 n.22 (“The plaintiffs in Schempp had standing . . . because impressionable schoolchildren were subjected to unwelcome religious exercises or were forced to assume special burdens to avoid them.”). Nor are Plaintiffs asking the courts to redress DB" ) - '$5 "-$ 1 ) .C *0/ /# *) 0 / *! *1 -)( )/7E See Am. Legion, 588 U.S. at 80 (Gorsuch, J., concurring in the judgment) (citation omitted) (opining that “[o]ffended observer standing is deeply inconsistent” with the rule that “Bgeneralized grievances’ . . . are insufficient to confer standing”). They allege that Students “will be pressured to observe, meditate on, venerate, and follow this scripture and to suppress expression of their own religious beliefs and backgrounds at school.” Indeed, the Supreme Court has recognized that “there are heightened concerns with protecting freedom of conscience from subtle coercive pressure in the elementary and secondary public schools.” Lee,505 U.S. at 592
.
_____________________
courts concluded . . . an observer’s offense must “suffice to make an
Establishment Clause claim justiciable.”
Id. at 84 (second alteration in original) (citations and quotation marks omitted).
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Plaintiffs are more than mere “offended observers.” Students and
Parents will be “directly affected” by H.B. 71; this is sufficient to confer
standing. Schempp, 374 U.S. at 224 n.9.
ii
Louisiana notably does not specify the precedent it asks us to
reconsider based on Kennedy.
Under our court’s rule of orderliness, 13 Kennedy is not an intervening
change in relevant law, because it did not examine or even mention standing.
In that case, a school district suspended and later fired a high school football
coach for praying on the school football field after games. The coach sued the
district under the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses. 597 U.S. at 519–
23. The school district invoked the Establishment Clause as a defense to the
coach’s Free Exercise and Free Speech claims, arguing that his Free Exercise
rights were “in B $- /tension’” with its obligations under the Establishment
Clause pursuant to “Lemon and its progeny.” Id. at 532, 534. The Supreme
Court rejected the district’s argument, set aside Lemon, and clarified that
D/# ./ '$.#( )/ ' 0. (0./ $)/ -+- / 4 B- ! - ) /* #$./*-$ '
practices and understandings.’” Id. at 535 (quotation marks omitted).
Because it was primarily a Free Exercise Clause and Free Speech Clause
challenge, Kennedy does not provide an appropriate basis upon which we may
reconsider our Establishment Clause standing caselaw. See Collins v. Dep’t of
the Treasury, 83 F.4th 970, 985 (5th Cir. 2023) (concluding that a Supreme
Court decision was not an intervening change in Appropriations Clause law
“because it was not an Appropriations Clause case”). And “[a]s middle-
_____________________
13
“It is a well-settled Fifth Circuit rule of orderliness that one panel of our court
may not overturn another panel’s decision, absent an intervening change in the law, such
as by . . . the Supreme Court, or our en banc court.” Jacobs v. Nat’l Drug Intel. Ctr., 548
F.3d 375, 378 (5th Cir. 2008).
22
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No. 24-30706
management circuit judges, we must follow binding precedent.” Consumers’
Rsch. v. Consumer Prod. Safety Comm’n, 91 F.4th 342, 346 (5th Cir. 2024), cert. denied,154 S. Ct. 414
(2024). 14
C
Louisiana next argues that the Superintendent and the BESE-
member defendants are entitled to sovereign immunity. It contends that the
Ex parte Young 15 exception to sovereign immunity is inapplicable here
because (1) there must be a direct threat of enforcement against the plaintiffs
to find an ongoing violation of federal law in a pre-enforcement challenge like
this one, and (2) these defendants lack the requisite enforcement authority
over H.B. 71.
“Generally, States are immune from suit under the terms of the
Eleventh Amendment and the doctrine of sovereign immunity.” Whole
Woman’s Health v. Jackson, 595 U.S. 30, 39 (2021). “This bar also applies to
.0$/.'$& /#$.*) B " $)././ / *!!$ $ '.*- " ) $ ./# / - !! /$1 '4.0$/.
against a state.’” Book People, 91 F.4th at 334 (quoting City of Austin v. Paxton,
_____________________
14
Because Plaintiffs have standing under the Establishment Clause, we do not
reach Louisiana’s arguments regarding whether Plaintiffs have standing to press their Free
Exercise Clause claims. See Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 410(1963) (declining to reach plaintiff’s equal protection claim “[i]n view of the result [the Court] reached under the First and Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion”); see also e.g., Espinoza, 591 U.S. at 488–89 & n.5 (finding Free Exercise violation; declining to reach Establishment Clause and Equal Protection claims); Flast v. Cohen,392 U.S. 83
, 104 n.25 (1968) (finding standing to press Establishment Clause claim; declining to reach Free Exercise claim); Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colo. C.R. Comm’n,584 U.S. 617
(2018) (finding Free Exercise violation; declining to reach Free Speech claim); First Nat’l Bank of Bos. v. Bellotti,435 U.S. 765
, 774 n.8 (1978) (finding First Amendment violation; declining to reach Equal Protection claim); League of United Latin Am. Citizens v. Perry,548 U.S. 399, 442
(2006) (finding Voting Rights Act violation; declining to reach First Amendment and
Equal Protection claims).
15
Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (1908).
23
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No. 24-30706
943 F.3d 993, 997 (5th Cir. 2019)). Under the Ex parte Young exception to sovereign immunity, “a litigant may sue a state official in his official capacity if the suit seeks prospective relief to redress an ongoing violation of federal law.” Williams ex rel. J.E. v. Reeves,954 F.3d 729
, 736 (5th Cir. 2020) (citing
Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. at 167–68).
The Supreme Court has warned that “a court need only conduct a
Bstraightforward inquiry into whether [the] complaint alleges an ongoing
violation of federal law and seeks relief properly characterized as
prospective.’” Verizon Md., Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n of Md., 535 U.S. 635,
645(2002) (alteration in original) (emphasis added). The ongoing and continuous violation of federal law requirement “merely distinguishes between cases where the relief sought is prospective in nature, . . . and cases where relief is retrospective.” Summit Med. Assocs., P.C. v. Pryor,180 F.3d 1326, 1338
(11th Cir. 1999). It “does not mean that the enforcement of the allegedly unconstitutional state statute actually must be in progress against the particular plaintiffs initiating suit.”Id.
Rather, “the Ex parte Young ) '4.$. /0-). *) /# *(+' $)/C. *)/ 3/6E /# / $.6 D2# /# - B/# ./ / officer, by virtue of his office, has some connection with the enforcement of the act.’” Air Evac EMS, Inc. v. Tex., Dep’t of Ins., Div. of Workers’ Comp.,851 F.3d 507, 519
(5th Cir. 2017) (citing Ex parte Young,209 U.S. at 157
); seeid.
(rejecting defendants’ argument that the Ex parte Young exception did not
apply because the challenged action was not enforced against the plaintiff,
noting the correct inquiry was “whether state defendants [had] the requisite
connection to the enforcement of the [challenged action]”).
“To satisfy the required enforcement connection, the state official
(0./# 1 0/4 4*) B/# " ) - ' 0/4/*. /# //# ' 2.*!/# ./ /
are implemented.’” Book People, 91 F.4th at 335 (citation omitted). “We have
!$) B )!*- ( )/C . B *(+0'.$*) *- *)./- $)/6CE .0 # /# / DN$O! /#
official does not compel or constrain anyone to obey the challenged law,
24
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No. 24-30706
enjoining that official could not stop any ongoing constitutional violation.”
Id. (alteration in original) (quoting City of Austin, 943 F.3d at 1002).
“' $)/$!!.) *)'4.#*2 B. $)/$'' *! )!*- ( )/ 4/# - ' 1 )/./ /
official.’” Id. (quoting Tex. Democratic Party v. Abbott, 978 F.3d 168, 179 (5th
Cir. 2020)).
H.B. 71 commands the BESE to “adopt rules and regulations . . . to
ensure [its] proper implementation.” La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(6)(a) (emphasis
added). Louisiana argues that this obligation does not amount to enforcement
power because the possibility that the BESE may someday promulgate rules
and regulations is insufficient to invoke Ex parte Young. See Whole Woman’s
Health, 595 U.S. at 44 (holding that the possibility that the Texas Medical
Board “might in the future” promulgate a rule that the attorney general
could enforce was insufficient to invoke Ex parte Young). But the BESE is
not merely permitted to adopt rules and regulations implementing H.B. 71, it
must do so. La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(6)(a) (“The [BESE] shall adopt rules
and regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act to
ensure the proper implementation of this Section.” (emphasis added)).
Louisiana also argues that the BESE’s exercise of its authority to
implement H.B. 71 will not compel or constrain anyone to obey the
challenged law. See Book People, 91 F.4th at 335. We disagree because the rules
and regulations adopted by the BESE must “ensure [H.B. 71’s] proper
implementation,” meaning the BESE-member defendants will necessarily
compel “each public school governing authority [to] display the Ten
Commandments in each classroom in each school under its jurisdiction.”
La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(6)(a), (B)(1). And under state law, the
Superintendent must “implement the policies and programs of the [BESE]
and the laws affecting schools under the jurisdiction of the [BESE].” Id.
§ 17:22(3)–(4). As the district court concluded: “[A]n injunction against the
25
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No. 24-30706
Superintendent would prevent the implementation of any regulations related
to H.B. 71, thus preventing constitutional violations.”
All that our caselaw requires is a “scintilla of enforcement.” Book
People, 91 F.4th at 335. The district court ruled that Plaintiffs met their
burden; we find no error.
IV
Louisiana next challenges the denial of its Rule 12(b)(6) motion to
dismiss Plaintiffs’ Establishment Clause claims. 16
We review the denial of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim
de novo. Ramming, 281 F.3d at 161. “To survive a motion to dismiss, a *(+' $)/(0./ *)/ $).0!!$ $ )/! /0 '( // -6 +/ ./-0 6/*B./ / claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal,556 U.S. 662, 678
(2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly,550 U.S. 544, 570
(2007)). 17
The parties agree that Plaintiffs have asserted a facial challenge to
H.B. 71. “To successfully mount a facial challenge, the plaintiffs must show
that there is no set of circumstances under which [H.B. 71] is constitutional.”
Croft v. Perry, 624 F.3d 157, 164 (5th Cir. 2010).
_____________________
16
Because we do not address whether Plaintiffs have standing to press their Free
Exercise Claims, see supra note 14, we do not reach Louisiana’s arguments regarding these
claims. See Sinochem Int’l Co. v. Malaysia Int’l Shipping Corp., 549 U.S. 422, 430–31 (2007)
(“[A] federal court generally may not rule on the merits of a case without first determining
that it has . . . subject matter jurisdiction[] . . . .” (citation omitted)).
17
As noted, because the “underpinnings” of Louisiana’s motion to dismiss are
“inextricably intertwined” with the district court’s ruling issuing a preliminary injunction,
we have jurisdiction to address the 12(b)(6) ruling. See Jiao, 28 F.4th at 596.
26
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No. 24-30706
A
# ./ '$.#( )/ ' 0. D2 . $)/ ) /* - / B 2 '' *!
separation between Church and State.’” Everson v. Bd. of Educ. of Ewing
Twp., 330 U.S. 1, 16(1947) (quoting Reynolds v. United States,98 U.S. 145, 164
(1878)). At a minimum, the Establishment Clause ordains that no federal
or state government “can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions,
or prefer one religion over another.” Id. at 15.
The Supreme Court “has been particularly vigilant in monitoring
compliance with the Establishment Clause in elementary and secondary
schools.” Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 583–84 (1987). That vigilance must be exercised with prescribed “care and restraint” because public education is primarily in the hands of the States and local authorities. Epperson v. Arkansas,393 U.S. 97, 104
(1968); see Yoder,406 U.S. at 213
(“Providing public schools ranks at the very apex of the function of a State.”). This means “[c]ourts . . . cannot intervene in the resolution of conflicts which arise in the daily operation of school systems and which do not directly and sharply implicate basic constitutional values.” Epperson,393 U.S. at 104
. For still, “a State’s interest in universal education, however highly we rank it, is not totally free from a balancing process when it impinges on fundamental rights and interests, such as those specifically protected by . . . the First Amendment, and the traditional interest of parents with respect to the religious upbringing of their children.” Yoder,406 U.S. at 214
.
The protections afforded to schoolchildren by the Establishment
Clause unquestionably “implicate basic constitutional values.” Epperson, 393
U.S. at 104. As the Court has previously explained:
Families entrust public schools with the education of their
children, but condition their trust on the understanding that
the classroom will not purposely be used to advance religious
views that may conflict with the private beliefs of the student
27
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No. 24-30706
and his or her family. Students in such institutions are
impressionable and their attendance is involuntary. The State
exerts great authority and coercive power through mandatory
attendance requirements, and because of the students’
emulation of teachers as role models and the children’s
susceptibility to peer pressure. Furthermore, “[t]he public
school is at once the symbol of our democracy and the most
pervasive means for promoting our common destiny. In no
activity of the State is it more vital to keep out divisive forces
than in its schools. . . .”
Edwards, 482 U.S. at 584(alterations in original) (citations omitted). That is why a religious practice may be deemed unconstitutional in the “special context of the public elementary and secondary school system,” but deemed constitutional elsewhere.Id. at 583
.
Perhaps no better case illustrates the nature of H.B. 71’s
constitutional problem than Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39(1980) (per curiam). In Stone, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky statute requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed on the wall of every public classroom in the state because it had no “secular legislative purpose.” 18449 U.S. at 41
(applying Lemon test).
_____________________
18
The statute read:
(1) It shall be the duty of the superintendent of public instruction, provided
sufficient funds are available as provided in subsection (3) of this Section,
to ensure that a durable, permanent copy of the Ten Commandments shall
be displayed on a wall in each public elementary and secondary school
classroom in the Commonwealth. The copy shall be sixteen (16) inches
wide by twenty (20) inches high.
(2) In small print below the last commandment shall appear a notation
*) -)$)"/# +0-+*. *!/# $.+' 46 .!*''*2.9B# . 0' - ++'$ /$*)
of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the
28
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No. 24-30706
According to Kentucky, the statute’s secular legislative purpose was
reflected on the displays in a small notation below the Commandments:
“The secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its
adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the
Common Law of the United States.” Id. at 41. The Court held that the state’s avowed purpose was a sham, and the statute was therefore unconstitutional.Id.
It explained, “[t]he pre-eminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls is plainly religious in nature. The Ten Commandments are undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths, and no legislative recitation of a supposed secular purpose can blind us to that fact.”Id.
at 40–42 (footnote and citations omitted).
Instead of integrating the Ten Commandments “into [a] school
curriculum[] where the Bible may . . . be used in an appropriate study,”
which the state could lawfully do, the posters “serve[d] no such educational
function.” Id.at 42 (citing Schempp,374 U.S. at 225
). Rather, “[i]f 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. . . . [That] is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”Id.
Twenty-five years after it decided Stone, the Supreme Court held in
Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005) (plurality opinion), that a monument
_____________________
fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of
the United States.’
(3) The copies required by this Act shall be purchased with funds made
available through voluntary contributions made to the state treasurer for
the purposes of this Act.”
Id. at 39 n.1 (citing 1978 Ky. Acts, ch. 436, § 1 (effective June 17, 1978), Ky. Rev. Stat.
§ 158.178 (1980)).
29
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No. 24-30706
of the Ten Commandments displayed on the Texas State Capitol grounds
was constitutional under the Establishment Clause. The Court declined to
apply the Lemon test—“[i]nstead, [its] analysis, [was] driven both by the
nature of the monument and by our Nation’s history.” Id. at 686. It found
that “[t]here is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three
branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least
1789.” Id. (citing Lynch, 465 U.S. at 674). It then found similar “acknowledgments of the role played by the Ten Commandments in our Nation’s heritage.”Id.
at 688–90. Because “Texas ha[d] treated its Capitol grounds monuments as representing the several strands in the State’s political and legal history,” the Court “[could not] say that Texas’[s] display . . . violates the Establishment Clause.”Id.
at 691–92.
The Supreme Court noted, however, that “[t]here are, of course,
limits to the display of religious messages or symbols.” Id. at 690. It distinguished Texas’s monument as a “far more passive use of [the Ten Commandments] than was the case in Stone, where the text confronted elementary school students every day.”Id. at 691
; see alsoid. at 703
(Breyer, J., concurring) (“The display is not on the grounds of a public
school, where, given the impressionability of the young, government must
exercise particular care in separating church and state.”).
B
Louisiana argues that Stone is not controlling because it relies on
Lemon, which is no longer good law, but even if Stone remains binding, it is
distinguishable because (1) the displays in Stone stood alone, not alongside
other documents as allowed by H.B. 71, and (2) Louisiana has a valid “secular
historical and educational purpose” for displaying the Ten Commandments
in classrooms. We disagree.
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It is the Supreme Court’s “prerogative alone to overrule one of its
precedents.” Bosse v. Oklahoma, 580 U.S. 1, 3 (2016) (per curiam) (quoting United States v. Hatter,532 U.S. 557, 567
(2001)). The Court has been clear: When one of its precedents “has direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls.” Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/Am. Exp., Inc.,490 U.S. 477, 484
(1989).
Although the Supreme Court set aside the Lemon test in Kennedy, see
597 U.S. at 534–36, Kennedy did not overrule Stone. Kennedy does not
mention Stone or purport to overrule the decisions (other than Lemon) on
which Stone relies, i.e., Schempp or Engel. Stone remains good law and
therefore controls, if it “direct[ly] appli[es].” 19 Rodriguez de Quijas, 490 U.S.
at 484; see Jusino v. Fed’n of Cath. Tchrs., Inc.,54 F.4th 95
, 102 (2d Cir. 2022) (holding that N.L.R.B. v. Cath. Bishop of Chi.,440 U.S. 490
(1979) “remains
good law notwithstanding its reliance . . . on Lemon v. Kurtzman” because
Kennedy did not “overrule – or even mention – Catholic Bishop”). We
conclude that it does.
Both H.B. 71 and the Kentucky statute require that the Ten
Commandments be displayed (1) in every public school classroom in the state
(2) on a poster subject to comparable minimum size requirements (3) with
context statements purporting to describe the historical basis for each display
and (4) as the central focus of the display. Both statutes (5) allow the posters
to be financed by private contributions, (6) task the superintendent with
implementing its mandates, and neither statute (7) actually integrates the
Ten Commandments into an educational curriculum. Compare La. R.S.
_____________________
19
At least one other circuit has cited to Stone with approval post-Kennedy. See
Hilsenrath ex rel. C.H. v. Sch. Dist. of Chathams, 136 F.4th 484, 492 n.65 (3rd Cir. 2025).
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§ 17:2124(B), with Stone, 449 U.S. at 39 n.1 (citing Ky. Rev. Stat.
§ 158.178 (1980)).
Under H.B. 71, public schools “may” display the Ten
Commandments alongside the Mayflower Compact, Declaration of
Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance—they are not required do so.
La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(4)(a). Conversely, H.B. 71 includes an express
“minimum requirement that the Ten Commandments shall be displayed on
a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen
inches,” that “[t]he text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central
focus” of the display, “and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font.”
Id. at § 17:2124(B)(1) (emphases added). An H.B. 71 display that meets the
statute’s minimum requirements is materially identical to the displays
challenged in Stone. 20
Stone’s reasoning is equally germane. In Stone, the Supreme Court
deemed Kentucky’s proffered secular purpose insufficient to survive
constitutional muster because Kentucky did not integrate the Ten
Commandments, an inherently religious text, into an educational curriculum
“where the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of
history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.” 449 U.S. at 42(citing Schempp,374 U.S. at 225
). Posting the Ten Commandments on classroom walls therefore “serve[d] no . . . educational function.”Id.
The
_____________________
20
Louisiana submitted twelve sample displays to the district court. These posters
range in color, format, and subject matter. Some include the Ten Commandments
alongside quotes and pictures of prominent figures like Speaker Mike Johnson, Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, Martin Luther King Jr., and Lin Manuel Miranda portraying Alexander
Hamilton. The district court found that the samples fail to satisfy H.B. 71’s minimum
requirements because the Ten Commandments are not “printed in a large, easily readable
font.” We also note that the Ten Commandments are not the “central focus” of each
display, and some displays include documents other than those permitted by H.B. 71.
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same is true of H.B. 71. The statute does not require that the Ten
Commandments be integrated into a curriculum of study. On the contrary,
under the statute’s minimum requirements, the posters must be
indiscriminately displayed in every public school classroom in Louisiana
regardless of class subject-matter. See La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(1). Louisiana
insists, however, that unlike Kentucky, its Legislature has a valid “secular
historical and educational purpose” for displaying the Ten Commandments
in classrooms, which is reflected in the statute. 21
“C*0-/. - B)*-( ''4 ! - )/$ ' /* N' "$.' /$1 O -/$ 0' /$*) *!
secular purpose.’” Croft, 624 F.3d at 166(alteration in original) (quoting Edwards,482 U.S. at 587
). But an alleged secular purpose “must be Bsincere,’” and not “merely a Bsham.’”Id.
(quoting Wallace v. Jaffree,472 U.S. 38, 64
(1985) (Powell, J., concurring)). When “undertaking a B.# (C $),0$-46 2 *).$ - 2# /# - /# # '' )" /$*) !0-/# -. /# particular purposes articulated by the legislature or whether the challenged action contravenes those avowed purposes.”Id.
(brackets omitted) (citing Freiler v. Tangipahoa Par. Bd. of Educ.,185 F.3d 337, 344
(5th Cir. 1999)).
Louisiana’s purported legislative purpose states:
It is the Legislature’s intent to apply the decision set forth by
the Supreme Court of the United States in Van Orden v. Perry,
545 U.S. 677 (2005), to continue the rich tradition [of including
the Ten Commandments in the education of our children] and
ensure that the students in our public schools may understand
and appreciate the foundational documents of our state and
national government.
La. R.S. § 17:2124(A)(9).
_____________________
21
We do not undertake this analysis to revive Lemon, but only for the limited
purpose of deciding whether Stone’s facts and reasoning control.
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Plaintiffs allege H.B. 71’s legislative history reveals additional signs of
a “sham” legislative purpose:
H.B. 71’s primary author and sponsor stated during a legislative
debate: “It is so important that our children learn what God says is
right, and what he says is wrong, and to allow [the Ten
Commandments] to be displayed in our classrooms as a visual aid, I
believe, especially in this day and time is so important.” 22
In support of the bill, a co-author of the bill stated, “I really believe
that we are lacking in direction. A lot of people, their children, are not
attending churches . . . . We need to do something in the schools to
bring people back to where they need to be.” Debate, at 15:17.
H.B. 71’s primary author also stated, “You know, not all children . . .
are taught right from wrong. . . . But I believe when I went to school, I
learned . . . to know there was a God by reciting the Ten
Commandments . . . . I knew what God said was right, and what he
said was wrong, . . . not all of us were taught that.” Debate, at 15:55.
When asked how a Buddhist or Muslim student would interpret one
of the Commandments, the bill’s author responded, “Well I’m not
Buddhist or Muslim so I’m not really worried about defining it for
them. . . . [The Ten Commandments] [are] a model for what’s God—
it’s God’s law, and it’s universal law.” Debate, at 19:42.
Another co-author and co-sponsor of H.B. 71 expressed his support
for the law during debate by claiming that those who oppose it are
waging an “attack on Christianity” and suggesting that it would
_____________________
22
An Act Requiring the Display of the Ten Commandments in Public Schools,
H.B. 71, 2024 Reg. Sess. (La. 2024), at 05:08, https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Video/
VideoArchivePlayer?v=house/2024/apr/0404_24_ED [Debate].
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provide a religious counterbalance to students’ secular education:
“My wife is a Christian and if she was a teacher she would be asked to
teach evolution which is in complete contradiction with the theory of
creation that we believe out of the Bible. . . . I am a parent and am
asking for this [bill].”
Citing these statements, the district court found that Louisiana’s
avowed secular purposes were “implausible [and] inadequate.” See Croft,
624 F.3d at 167 (citation modified). These statements indeed “support a
commonsense conclusion that a religious objective permeated the
government’s action.” Id; see Edwards, 482 U.S. at 591–92 (concluding that
the “preeminent purpose of the [state legislature] was clearly to advance [a]
religious viewpoint” based on statements by legislators and testimony
presented during legislative hearings).
It is also unclear how H.B. 71 ensures that students in Louisiana public
schools “understand and appreciate the foundational documents of [its] state
and national government” when it makes displaying those “foundational”
documents optional, and does not require that they also be printed in a large,
easily readable font. La. R.S. § 17:2124(A)(9). When the Ten
Commandments must be posted prominently and legibly, while the other
“contextual” materials need not be visible at all, the disparity lays bare the
pretext.
To the extent that Louisiana relies on Van Orden to justify displaying
the Ten Commandments in classrooms, we have already explained that the
public school classroom implicates certain protections that other contexts,
like the Texas State Capital grounds, does not. See supra Section IV(A). The
Supreme Court said as much in Van Orden. See 454 U.S. at 690–91 (“There
are, of course, limits to the display of religious messages or symbols. . . . Stone
. . . 2 . *). ,0 ) *!/# B+ -/$ 0' - *) -)./# / -$. $)/# *)/ 3/*!
35
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public elementary and secondary schools.’ . . . The placement of the Ten
Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds is a far more
passive use of those texts than was the case in Stone, where the text
confronted elementary school students every day.” (citations omitted)).
As in Stone, “[i]f 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.” 449 U.S. at 42. This “is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”Id.
Stone v. Graham is controlling. Under Stone, H.B. 71 is plainly
unconstitutional. The district court did not err.
C
We also agree with the district court that, even if Stone were
overturned tomorrow, H.B. 71 violates the Establishment Clause under
Kennedy. Louisiana counters that the district court misapplied Kennedy
because, under Kennedy, the threshold question in an Establishment Clause
analysis is whether the challenged practice implicates historical hallmarks of
religious establishments. We disagree.
As noted, Kennedy shed light on the proper standard for interpreting
Establishment Clause claims, holding that “the Establishment Clause must
$)/ -+- / 4B- ! - ) /*#$./*-$ '+- /$ . ) 0) -./ ) $)".7CE597
U.S. at 535 (quotation marks omitted). “The line that courts and
governments must draw between the permissible and the impermissible has
to accord with history and faithfully reflect the understanding of the
Founding Fathers.” Id. at 536–37 (citation modified) (citing Galloway, 572
U.S. at 577; Schempp,374 U.S. at 294
).
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The Supreme Court then addressed the district’s alternative
argument—that the district’s actions were justified because it “would have
been guilty of coercing students to pray” if it allowed the coach to continue
publicly praying on school property. Id. at 536. Acknowledging that
“coercion . . . was among the foremost hallmarks of religious establishments
the framers sought to prohibit when they adopted the First Amendment,”
the Court concluded there was insufficient evidence of coercion by the coach.
Id. at 537 & n.5 (citing Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 596 U.S. 243, 285–88 (2022)
(Gorsuch, J., concurring) (examining the historical hallmarks of an
established religion)). But Kennedy did not adopt these “hallmarks” 23 as the
exclusive Establishment Clause test and the Shurtleff concurrence is non-
binding. See Kennedy, 597 U.S. at 536–37 & n.5. Louisiana conceded as much
before the district court.
We applied Kennedy and Galloway in Freedom From Religion
Foundation, Inc. v. Mack. There, plaintiffs challenged a Texas Justice of the
Peace’s practice of opening his court with a prayer. Mack, 49 F.4th at 944.
We looked to Galloway, in which the Supreme Court upheld a town’s
practice of commencing its board meetings with a prayer, and we formulated
the following standard to evaluate historical record evidence: Whether the
challenged practice “fits within” or is “consistent with a broader tradition”
at the time of the Founding or incorporation. Id. at 951. This analysis
_____________________
23
The “hallmarks” of religious establishment include whether the government:
(1) “exerted control over the doctrine and personnel of the established church”;
(2) “mandated attendance in the established church and punished people for failing to
participate”; (3) “punished dissenting churches and individuals for their religious
exercise”; (4) “restricted political participation by dissenters”; (5) “provided financial
support for the established church, often in a way that preferred the established
denomination over other churches”; and (6) “used the established church to carry out
certain civil functions, often by giving the established church a monopoly over a specific
function.” Shurtleff, 596 U.S. at 286 (Gorsuch, J., concurring) (citations omitted).
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“ + ) .*)B*-$"$) '( )$)" ) #$./*-46C2$/#+ -/$ 0' - // )/$*)+ $ /*
B#$./*-$ '+- /$ .7CEId. (citing Kennedy, 597 U.S. at 535); see Galloway, 572
U.S. at 577 (“The Court’s inquiry, then, must be to determine whether the
prayer practice in the town of Greece fits within the tradition long followed
in Congress and the state legislatures.”).
Applying Kennedy and Mack here, the district court framed the
“broader tradition” as the use of the Ten Commandments in public
education, and the challenged practice as “the permanent posting of the Ten
Commandments in public[] school classrooms.” No one challenges that
framing. Therefore, the question before us is whether the permanent posting
of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms fits within, or is
consistent with, a broader tradition of using the Ten Commandments in
public education.
Plaintiffs allege that “[t]here is no longstanding tradition of
permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public[] school
classrooms in Louisiana or the United States more generally.” They also
allege that “[H.B. 71] includes false statements relating to a purported
history and connection between the Ten Commandments and government
and public education in the United States,” including a “fabricated” quote
by James Madison regarding this country’s “capacity . . . to govern ourselves
according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”
Accepting these allegations as true, the district court found that
Plaintiffs adequately pleaded an Establishment Clause violation under
Kennedy. We find no error. 24
_____________________
24
Because neither we nor the Supreme Court have decided an Establishment
Clause case involving the public school context since Kennedy, we assume without deciding
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V
Lastly, Louisiana challenges the preliminary injunction as erroneously
granted and overbroad.
“We review the district court’s grant of [a] preliminary injunction for
abuse of discretion, reviewing underlying factual findings for clear error and
legal conclusions de novo.” Harrison v. Young, 48 F.4th 331, 339 (5th Cir.
2022).
A preliminary injunction is proper if Plaintiffs can show “(1) a
substantial likelihood of success on the merits, (2) a substantial threat of
irreparable harm absent the injunction, (3) that the harm [Plaintiffs] will
suffer without the injunction outweighs the cost to comply with the
injunction, and (4) that the injunction is in the public interest.” Id.
A
Louisiana argues that Plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits
of their Establishment Clause claims for the same reasons asserted in its
consolidated motion to dismiss: lack of subject matter jurisdiction and
because H.B. 71 is constitutional under Kennedy.
The district court correctly found that Plaintiffs’ claims are ripe, they
have shown standing to bring their Establishment Clause claims, and no
defendant is entitled to sovereign immunity. The district court also found
that H.B. 71 violates the Establishment Clause under Stone, which remains
good law and controlling.
Under Kennedy and Mack, the district court determined that to
succeed on the merits, Plaintiffs must show that the practice at issue—
_____________________
that the historical framework formulated in Mack is applicable here, and cite Mack for this
very limited purpose.
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permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public school
classrooms—does not “fit[] within,” and is not “consistent with,” a broader
tradition existing at the time of the founding. Mack, 49 F.4th at 950–51.
In support of their motion for a preliminary injunction, Plaintiffs
presented the expert testimony of Dr. Steven Green, a religious and
constitutional legal historian. Dr. Green testified that the public school
system did not exist at the founding; rather, public education originated
sometime around the late 1820s. Dr. Green also found no evidence that the
Ten Commandments were permanently displayed in early American public
schools. He testified that no state enacted a law allowing the display of the
Ten Commandments in public schools until North Dakota did so in 1927, and
that a court later stuck down the statute. See Ring v. Grand Forks Pub. Sch.
Dist. No. 1, 483 F. Supp. 272 (D.N.D. 1980).
Dr. Green also testified about the books cited in H.B. 71’s context
statement. The New England Primer, whose initial publication predates the
existence of the public school system, he explained, was primarily used in
religious schools and private academies. The McGuffey Readers had six levels.
About half referenced the Ten Commandments, and only sporadically (in
approximately 4 lessons out of 200 lessons), and their prevalence lessened
over time. He testified that most versions of Webster’s American Spelling
Book included no reference to the Ten Commandments. Citing his findings
and a “lack of compelling counterevidence,” he rebutted H.B. 71’s
declaration that “The Ten Commandments were a prominent part of
American public education for almost three centuries,” see La. R.S.
§ 17:2124(B)(3). 25 Louisiana did not present any expert testimony.
_____________________
25
Louisiana contends that the H.B. 71 displays involve a “far more passive” use of
the Ten Commandments than the books cited in the statute’s context statement because
the displays “will simply appear on a wall for students to observe or ignore as they wish.”
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Based on Dr. Green’s testimony, the district court found a substantial
likelihood that there is insufficient evidence of a broader tradition in place at
the time of the founding, or within the history of public education, so as to
justify H.B. 71. 26 This finding is not clearly erroneous. 27 The district court
_____________________
But “it is no defense to urge that the religious practice[] here may be [a] relatively minor
encroachment[] on the First Amendment.” Schempp, 374 U.S. at 225.
26
Louisiana challenges the district court’s reliance on Dr. Green’s testimony. It
accuses the court of improperly deferring to expert testimony to resolve constitutional
issues. Indeed, “an expert may never render conclusions of law.” Goodman v. Harris Cnty.,
571 F.3d 388, 399(5th Cir. 2009). But the legal issue presented—whether H.B. 71 violates the Establishment Clause—requires, on a motion for preliminary injunction, resolving fact issues about the Ten Commandments’ role in American history. See Kennedy, 597 U.S. at 534–37; see also Yoder,406 U.S. at 209
(looking to a party’s “expert witnesses[,] scholars on religion and education,” in deciding a Free Exercise claim). The district court did not abuse its discretion by relying on “the historical record compiled by the parties” to determine whether the Ten Commandments fit within this country’s longstanding history and tradition. See New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen,597 U.S. 1
, 25 n.6
(2022). Separately but relatedly, we decline to address Plaintiffs’ argument that Bruen
required Louisiana, not them, to carry the evidentiary burden in the historical analysis. We
are satisfied that—even assuming the district court correctly assigned the burden—
Plaintiffs have met it.
27
Louisiana separately argues that H.B. 71 is consistent with the broader tradition
of displaying religious imagery on “public property.” It likens the H.B. 71 displays to the
national seal, a proposed national seal featuring Moses, various state and municipal flags,
and the “In God We Trust” motto featured on American currency. As the district court
correctly concluded, under Mack, a court should not construe the relevant tradition too
broadly. See Mack, 49 F.4th at 957 (“Accordingly, we ask whether Mack’s particular
+- /$ $. *).$./ )/2$/#N/# O/- $/$*)N*!+- 4 - !*- B '$ - /$1 * $ .O7CEM7Not
only does Dr. Green’s testimony establish that there is no “unbroken history” of displaying
the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, Lynch, 465 U.S. at 674, but as we have made clear, supra section IV(A), the display of religious symbols in public classrooms is patently distinguishable from the display of religious imagery in government buildings. See also Galloway,572 U.S. at 590
(distinguishing Galloway from Lee where “the Court
found that, in the context of a graduation where school authorities maintained close
supervision over the conduct of the students and the substance of the ceremony, a religious
invocation was coercive as to an objecting student,” because legislative prayer did not
present “ )0) *)./$/0/$*) '$(+*.$/$*) ./*( /0- 0'/.62#*B+- .0( '4C - B)*/
readily susceptible to religious indoctrination or peer pressure’”); Am. Legion, 588 U.S. at
41
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did not err in finding that Plaintiffs showed a substantial likelihood of success
on the merits of their Establishment Clause claims.
B
As to the second element, a substantial threat of irreparable harm
absent the injunction, Louisiana argues that Plaintiffs cannot show any harm
because they do not know what the posters will look like and therefore cannot
know whether any poster will violate the First Amendment.
This argument fails for the same reasons Louisiana’s ripeness
argument fails. H.B. 71’s minimum requirements provide sufficient details
about how the Ten Commandments must be displayed. Plaintiffs have shown
that those displays will cause an “irreparable” deprivation of their First
Amendment rights. See Elrod, 427 U.S. at 373.
C
The third element is whether the harm that Plaintiffs will suffer absent
the injunction “outweighs the cost to comply with the injunction.” Harrison,
48 F.4th at 339. “Where the State is appealing an injunction, its interest and
harm merge with the public interest,” the fourth element. Book People, 91
F.4th at 340–41.
Louisiana will “suffer[] the irreparable harm of denying the public
interest in the enforcement of its laws.” Id. at 341 (citation omitted). But it
does not have a genuine “interest in enforcing a regulation that violates
_____________________
51 n.16 (dividing Establishment Clause cases “into six rough categories” including a
category involving “religious references or imagery in public monuments, symbols, mottos,
displays, and ceremonies” and another category involving “religious expression in public
schools”); see also Edwards, 482 U.S. at 583 n.4 (noting that “a historical approach is not
useful in determining the proper roles of church and state in public schools, since free
public education was virtually nonexistent at the time the Constitution was adopted”).
42
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federal law.” Id.(citation omitted). On the contrary, “[i]njunctions protecting First Amendment freedoms are always in the public interest,” Opulent Life Church v. City of Holly Springs,697 F.3d 279, 298
(5th Cir. 2012)
(brackets and citation omitted), and courts must be “particularly vigilant in
monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause in elementary and
secondary schools.” Edwards, 482 U.S. at 583–84.
The district court did not abuse its discretion by finding that Plaintiffs
satisfied the preliminary injunction elements.
D
Finally, we reject Louisiana’s challenge to the district court’s order
that the Superintendent and BESE-member defendants provide notice of
the injunction to all Louisiana public and charter schools. Louisiana’s chief
argument is that the notice provision is “an effort to achieve by other means
an improper statewide injunction.” That argument falls because nothing
would prohibit a statewide injunction under these circumstances. See Rodgers
v. Bryant, 942 F.3d 451, 458–59 (8th Cir. 2019); Milliken v. Bradley,418 U.S. 717, 744
(1974) (“The controlling principle consistently expounded in our holdings is that the scope of the remedy is determined by the nature and extent of the constitutional violation.” (citing Swann v. Charlotte- Mecklenburg Bd. of Ed.,402 U.S. 1, 16
(1971))).
* * *
We AFFIRM the district court’s entry of a preliminary injunction
and denial of Louisiana’s consolidated motion to dismiss as to Plaintiffs’
Establishment Clause claims.
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James L. Dennis, Circuit Judge, concurring:
I join the majority opinion in full. I write separately to offer two
additional bases for affirming the district court’s judgment. First, the
Plaintiffs have standing under settled Supreme Court precedents recognizing
“offended observer” standing in Establishment Clause cases. See, e.g., Lee v.
Weisman, 505 U.S. 577(1992); Sch. Dist. of Abington Twp. v. Schempp,374 U.S. 203
(1963). Second, Louisiana vastly overstates both the holding and reach of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District,597 U.S. 507
(2022). That decision did not undermine—much less overrule—Stone v. Graham,449 U.S. 39
(1980). Nor did it eliminate the component parts of Lemon v. Kurtzman,403 U.S. 602
(1971). 1
I
Plaintiffs seeking to press claims in federal court face several hurdles,
most basic among them the requirement that they have suffered an “injury
in fact.” See Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560–61 (1992). For more
than six decades, however, the Supreme Court has recognized that personal
exposure to objectionable religious expression by the government can satisfy
that requirement when the claim arises under the Establishment Clause.
This “offended observer” or “exposure” theory of standing permits
plaintiffs to sue based on a substantial likelihood of encountering state-
sponsored religious expression. See Carl H. Esbeck, Unwanted Exposure to
Religious Expression by Government: Standing & the Establishment Clause,
_____________________
1
Lemon formalized a three-part test for evaluating Establishment Clause violations:
state action is unconstitutional if it (1) lacks a secular legislative purpose; (2) has the
primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion; or (3) fosters an excessive entanglement
between government and religion. 403 U.S. at 612–13. Over time, courts interpreting the
second prong began asking whether a “reasonable observer” would view the government’s
challenged action an “endorsement” of religion, giving rise to the so-called “endorsement
test.” See, e.g., Cnty. of Allegheny v. Am. C.L. Union, 492 U.S. 573, 593 (1989).
1
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7 Charleston L. Rev. 607, 607–08 (2013); 2 Christopher C. Lund,
A Defense of Offended Observer Standing Under the Establishment Clause, 70
Wayne L. Rev. 111, 120–23 (2024). In this context, unwanted exposure
operates as a proxy for the otherwise demanding injury-in-fact requirement.
“There is [offended observer] standing where a plaintiff’s status has led to
being personally exposed to her government’s religious expression, the
message being one with which she disagrees, or she has had to assume a
burden to avoid any such exposure.” Esbeck, supra at 633.
Louisiana contends that we are free to discard offended observer
standing and adopt the minority view advanced by Justices Thomas and
Gorsuch—that the Supreme Court has never recognized such standing
and that the doctrine lacks any basis in law. See, e.g., City of Ocala v. Rojas,
143 S. Ct. 764(2023) (Mem.) (Gorsuch, J., statement regarding denial of certiorari);id. at 765
(Thomas, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari); Am. Legion v. Am. Humanist Ass’n,588 U.S. 29
, 79–89 (2019) (Gorsuch, J., concurring in the judgment); but see Lund, supra at 132 (arguing that Justices Thomas and Gorsuch “treat[] standing as parasitic on the merits”); cf. Warth v. Seldin,422 U.S. 490, 500
(1975) (“[S]tanding in no
way depends on the merits of the plaintiff’s contention that particular
conduct is illegal.”). Louisiana is mistaken: the Supreme Court majority has
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2
I agree with Professor Esbeck that the label “offended observer” is misleading
because it implies a plaintiff’s injury is mere offense. Esbeck, supra at 608 n.3. “[T]he
nature of the relevant harm is not emotional or psychological offense, nor is it the intensity
of the offense.” Id. “[T]he successful plaintiff is more than a mere observer, but one who
disagrees with her government’s message.” Id. On this account, the phrase “offended
observer” serves as a rhetorical tool for governmental defendants used to trivialize
Establishment Clause claims and to seek early dismissal for lack of standing. I use the term
here only for clarity.
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long recognized and applied offended observer standing in Establishment
Clause cases.
In Lee v. Weisman, Deborah Weisman, a public high school student,
objected to the inclusion of a prayer service at her upcoming graduation. 505
U.S. at 584. The Supreme Court held: “[A] live and justiciable controversy is before us. Deborah Weisman is enrolled as a student at Classical High School in Providence and from the record it appears likely, if not certain, that an invocation and benediction will be conducted at her high school graduation.”Id.
This is the High Court’s clear recognition of offended observer standing. Weisman would not have had standing if she were a student at a different school or in a different state. But her substantially likely future exposure to the government-ordered prayers gave her standing to sue.Id.
at 596–97. Lest there be any doubt, the Court’s standing theory did not depend on Weisman being more than an offended observer. Nowhere does Lee suggest that her standing arose from the school forcing or coercing her to pray. In fact, all nine Justices unanimously agreed on this issue; even the four dissenters, who emphasized that the school did not coerce Weisman to pray, did not question her standing.Id.
at 637–40.
Lee is not an anomaly. In School District of Abington Township v.
Schempp, the Supreme Court treated standing similarly. 374 U.S. at 225 n.9.
There, the Schempp family challenged a Pennsylvania law requiring students
to read the Bible at the beginning of each school day as a violation of the
Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court declared the Bible reading
unconstitutional, even though the students could be excused without
penalty. As to standing, the Court held:
The parties here are school children and their parents, who are
directly affected by the laws and practices against which their
complaints are directed. These interests surely suffice to give
the parties standing to complain. . . . Compare Doremus v. Board
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of Education, 342 U.S. 429 (1952), which involved the same
substantive issues presented here. The appeal was there
dismissed upon the graduation of the school child involved and
because of the appellants’ failure to establish standing as
taxpayers.
Id.
Schempp is less explicit than Lee, but the Court clearly applied
offended observer standing. Earlier in the opinion, the Court had already
explained how the school’s religious lessons “were read to [the Schempp
children] at various times as part of the [school’s] exercises” and “were
contrary to the religious beliefs they held.” Id. at 208. The Court then
concluded the Schempp children were “directly affected” by the prayers in
ways that “suffice[d] to give [them] standing to complain.” Id. at 225 n.9.
One sees the offended observer theory of standing both in Schempp’s self-
characterization and its characterization of Doremus, where the Court held
that plaintiffs lacked standing because the child’s graduation had cut off the
risk of future exposure. Id.; Lund, supra at 120–23; see also Valley Forge
Christian Coll. v. Ams. United for the Separation of Church & State, 454 U.S.
464, 487 n.22 (1982) (explaining with approval that the students in Schempp
had standing because they were “subjected to unwelcome religious exercises
or [were] forced to assume special burdens to avoid them”).
In my estimation, the Supreme Court has long approved offended
observer standing. And as a court of appeals, we are not free to adopt the
views of dissenting Justices over those of the Court’s majority. 3 Although our
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3
Concomitantly, it would be most unusual to find that these Plaintiffs lack standing
to challenge H.B. 71, a law that is virtually identical to the Kentucky law that the Supreme
Court struck down over forty years ago in Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980). True
enough, the Supreme Court did not expressly consider whether the Stone plaintiffs had
standing. But “[w]hile we are not bound by previous exercises of jurisdiction in cases in
which our power to act was not questioned but was [approved] sub silentio, neither should
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majority opinion does not rest on this ground, I am more than comfortable
concluding that the Plaintiffs have offended observer standing to challenge
H.B. 71 under the Establishment Clause.
II
On the merits of the Establishment Clause claim, Louisiana argues
that we can ignore Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39(1980) (which struck down a law like H.B. 71 for lacking a secular purpose), because Stone relied on Lemon, which Louisiana insists Kennedy fully abandoned. Today we correctly affirm the district court’s ruling that Stone is controlling. Indeed, as the majority opinion explains, Kennedy does not mention Stone and “[i]t is the 0+- ( *0-/C. Bprerogative alone to overrule one of its precedents.’” Ante, at 31 (quoting Bosse v. Oklahoma,580 U.S. 1
, 3 (2016)).
But even setting aside our lack of authority to overrule Stone, I write
further to highlight the scholarship of Professors Lupu and Tuttle, who argue
that many courts and commentators have overstated Kennedy’s significance.
See Ira C. Lupu & Robert W. Tuttle, The Ten Commandments in Louisiana
Public Schools: A Study in the Survival of Establishment Clause Norms, 100
Chi.-Kent L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025). In their view, Kennedy
repudiated only the endorsement test—an offshoot of Lemon’s second prong
(supra n.1)—and left intact the broader framework of Establishment Clause
doctrine: the requirement of a secular legislative purpose, the prohibition on
policies whose primary effect advances religion, and the concern about
excessive entanglement between church and state. As they note, those
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we disregard the implications of an exercise of judicial authority assumed to be proper for
over 40 years.” Brown Shoe Co. v. United States, 370 U.S. 294, 307 (1962) (citations
omitted).
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principles “do not originate with Lemon,” and the Supreme Court has not
repudiated them.
Take, for example, Schempp, the Court’s seminal school prayer case
decided nearly a decade before Lemon. There, the Supreme Court held that
“to withstand the strictures of the Establishment Clause there must be a
secular legislative purpose . . . .” 374 U.S. at 222 (first citing Everson v. Board
of Education, 330 U.S. 1(1947); and then citing McGowan v. Maryland,366 U.S. 420, 442
(1961)). That foundational holding still binds us. Unless
Schempp and its origins are overruled—relief that Louisiana has not sought at
any point in this litigation—the inquiry into the purpose of a state-sponsored
religious display remains mandatory. Abandoning Stone would mark a first
and striking step toward unraveling school prayer cases like Schempp, which
rest on concerns about state-sponsored indoctrination of young,
impressionable, and captive public-school students.
Louisiana’s mistaken reliance on Kennedy as overruling Stone
underscores the point. Kennedy turned not on state action, but on whether
Coach Kennedy’s personal post-game prayers were protected private
speech. The Court concluded they were, and that the school district’s
Establishment Clause concerns could not justify restricting his free exercise.
The Ten Commandments display at issue here, by contrast, is indisputably
state action, undertaken for religious reasons. Still, Louisiana argues that
Kennedy swept away Lemon entirely and, with it, Stone, replacing the existing
framework with a singular focus on history and tradition.
That reading goes too far. True, Kennedy states that “this Court long
ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot.” 597 U.S. at 510.
But only the second part of that sentence is fully supported by the opinion
itself. The only part of Lemon the Court addressed was the endorsement test.
That is, whether a reasonable observer would perceive Coach Kennedy’s
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prayers as government sponsorship of religion. Kennedy did not revisit the
secular purpose requirement, the analysis of primary effects, or the concern
with excessive entanglement. And again, these requirements predate Lemon.
“Lemon’s component parts thus remain alive, and function in a variety of
contexts, even if citations to Lemon now will disappear.” Lupu & Tuttle,
supra.
Stone still stands. H.B. 71 falls.
7
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