Evangelism

Court Rules Louisiana Schools Can Post Ten Commandments in Classrooms

Louisiana’s law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms statewide can take effect, a federal appeals court decided on Friday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 12-6 to overturn a lower court decision that put Louisiana House Bill 71 (H.B. 71) on ice.

In June 2024, the Louisiana Legislature enacted H.B. 71 requiring public schools to “display the Ten Commandments in each building it uses and classroom in each school.” Displays may be paid for by public donations.

Shortly thereafter, a group of parents filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of the law, arguing H.B. 71 violated the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses. The ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation represented the parents in court.

A district court judge sided with the parents and granted a preliminary injunction, which was affirmed by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit.

The entire Fifth Circuit then reheard the case and now has overturned the preliminary injunction, deciding the case wasn’t ripe for judicial review, because it didn’t know how the displays would appear or how teachers would use them.

Deciding whether H.B. 71 violates the Constitution “would oblige us to hypothesize an open-ended range of possible classroom displays,” the court said. “[That] is not judging; it is guessing.”

Judge James Ho, a nominee of President Donald J. Trump, concurred with the court’s decision, but went further and argued that the law “is constitutional and consistent with our Founding traditions.”

“Our Nation’s Founders didn’t just permit religion in education – they presumed that there would be religion in education,” Judge Ho contended. “Indeed, our Founders firmly believed that our Constitution wouldn’t work without a religious people.”

“The Louisiana Ten Commandments law is not just constitutional – it affirms our Nation’s highest and most noble traditions,” Ho explained.

The ACLU called the decision “extremely disappointing,” saying it would “unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district.”

First Liberty, a nonprofit legal aid group, applauded the court’s decision. Kelly Shackelford, First Liberty’s president and CEO, said in a statement, “We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit is allowing Louisiana’s statute that requires the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools to take effect.”

Shackelford added,

The Ten Commandments are part of the history and tradition of our country. …
We echo Judge Ho’s words that our Founding Fathers believed the Constitution didn’t simply permit religious education, it presumed it would take place.

The Fifth Circuit’s decision could have an effect on two other states’ laws – in Texas and Arkansas – which also require schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

After a lawsuit was filed against Texas’ law, the Fifth Circuit consolidated that case, Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, with the case challenging Louisiana’s law. The Texas case remains under consideration by the full slate of Fifth Circuit judges.

Texas Values, a Focus on the Family-allied state family policy counsel, praised the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, highlighting the impact it could have on Texas’ law. Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, said in a statement:

The appeals court got it right by allowing the Louisiana Ten Commandments law to go into effect. We are confident the appeals court will soon rule in favor of the Texas Ten Commandments law as well.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Stone v. Graham that a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms was unconstitutional under the establishment clause.

So, you ask, why are lower courts now reconsidering the constitutionality of such laws? Good question.

The Stone decision relied on the Lemon test (created in the 1971 case Lemon v. Kurtsman) which said a law violates the establishment clause if it fails to have “a secular legislative purpose.”

But in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Lemon test in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, instead holding that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’”

In the wake of the opinion, multiple states – Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas – realized the Court’s Stone decision was left in tatters. So, they enacted laws requiring the Ten Commandments in classrooms, leading to the present legal battles.

As Judge Ho’s well-reasoned concurring opinion points out, “Stone relies on precedent that the Supreme Court has overturned. … Lemon is gone, so Stone is gone. We’re not bound by Stone any more.”

Louisiana’s law “is fully consistent with the Constitution,” Judge Ho continued, “and what’s more, it reinforces our Founders’ firm belief that the children of America should be educated about the religious foundations and traditions of our country.”

It’s possible the lawsuits challenging the Ten Commandments in classrooms end up in the U.S. Supreme Court since they give the Court an opportunity to formally overturn Stone. If they do, the Daily Citizen will keep you updated.

The case is Roake vs. Brumley.

Related articles and resources:

Appeals Court Favors Louisiana Ten Commandments Law for Now

Judge Temporarily Blocks Ten Commandments in Classrooms, Louisiana Will Appeal

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments Bill is Good for Kids, Communities, and the Nation

Photo from Getty Images.

On Presidents Day, Pray for President Trump

Would you be willing to leave a comfortable, lucrative career for a temporary position — where halfway through the assignment you need to reapply, knowing that all kinds of folks are vying for the job?

Along with the role, you get a free place to live in a not so safe neighborhood — but you have to pay for your own food.

It’s a 7 day a week position, you’re always on call, and people are constantly analyzing every word you write or say. In fact, more than half the people don’t like you, a large percentage seem to hate you — and then there are the people who want and even try to kill you.

As for the previous holders of the position — why did they leave the job? 

Well, in this case, one-third of them either died while employed or someone plotted, schemed or actually tried to kill them.

By now you’ve likely figured out that the job I’m referring to is the Office of President of the United States.


We celebrate them all today on this Presidents Day, and although you likely think some are more worth celebrating than others, all 45 men took on a tough job — and usually with the best of intentions.

Consider some of these numbers:

14 of these men served two terms or 8 years. One, Franklin Roosevelt, served three terms and three months of a fourth term. Four were killed while in office: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy.

In recent years, the number of thwarted plots to kill the president makes your head spin and your heart hurt. As President Trump painfully discovered back when he was running for his current term in the summer of 2024, the presidency is a dangerous undertaking.

It would be good and appropriate on this Presidents Day of 2026 to hit the “pause” on the partisan button and acknowledge that the role of chief executive of the United States is a tough one – and we should be grateful for the people who were and are willing to serve in the Oval Office.

Between his first and current term, Donald Trump has served 1,853 days. Those days are long, difficult and often highly contentious. All the easy problems have been solved by the time they reach a president’s desk. As such, he needs and deserves our prayers.

For this very reason, Scripture commands that we lift up our leaders. Wrote the Apostle Paul, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). 

If our leaders are pursuing good goals with good and selfless intentions, we do well when those leaders succeed.

Please also join in also praying for President Trump’s family.

“Who Am I?”: James Van Der Beek’s Final Answer

The death of actor James Van Der Beek on Wednesday at the age of 48 has resurfaced a moving and revealing post that he shared last year on his birthday.

It was March of 2025 and Van Der Beek, who was married and raising 6 children, was in the midst of a battle with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. 

“Today’s my birthday, and it has been the hardest year of my life,” James told his fans.

“When I was younger, I used to define myself as an actor, which was never really all that fulfilling. And then I became a husband, and that was much better. And then I became a father, and that was the ultimate,” he said. 

James and Kimberly have six young children: Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.

“I could define myself then as a loving, capable, strong, supportive husband, father, provider, steward of the land that we’re so lucky to live on,” he shared. “And for a long time, that felt like a really good definition to the question, ‘Who am I? What am I?’ And then this year, I had to look my own mortality in the eye. I had to come nose to nose with death.”

Van Der Beek went on to share how the strain of treatments had stripped him of those familiar and familial responsibilities. He could no longer act, put his children to bed — even trim the trees on their property. 

“And so I was faced with the question,” he continued. “If I am just a too-skinny, weak guy alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I?”

After prayer and meditation, the actor revealed that he had concluded, “I am worthy of God’s love, simply because I exist … And the same is true for you.”

In an interview this past summer, James shared:

“Before cancer, God was something I tried to fit into my life as much as possible. After cancer, I feel like a connection to God is kind of the whole point of this exercise on this planet.”

Based on some of Van Der Beek’s other comments, he appears to have been on a spiritual journey, growing and maturing as he gained a more fulsome understanding of how our faith serves as the foundation of the Christian life.

Difficult and challenging news has a way of helping us refine and clarify priorities. This is what Pastor Rick Warren was getting at when he spoke at a commencement ceremony at Oral Roberts University. He shared:

As a pastor I have stood at the bedside of literally thousands of people as they took their last breath. I have never once had somebody at their dying moment say, ‘Bring me my bowling trophy, I want to see it one more time; bring me my certificate, my college degree so I can look at it one more time; bring me the nice gold watch I got for 30 years of service at my company.’ Nobody ever says that; they say, ‘Bring me the people that I love.’ In the closing moments of their life, what people want are those they love the most around them.

Following his passing, James’ family posted the following statement:

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”

We invite you to pray for Kimberly, their six children, and extended family.

We Need Evangelical Leaders with a Consistent Not Convenient Conscience

Are some pastors and evangelical leaders conveniently ignoring many social and moral cultural issues — but then willing to jump into the fray when it’s deemed safe and even politically popular to do so?

After a firestorm erupted last week over an offensive social media share from President Trump (one that he later condemned, deleted and said he had not seen in its entirety), a good many Christian leaders denounced the post. Yet some of those same individuals have remained otherwise largely silent on a host of horrific and culturally destructive developments.

Then there is Dr. Albert Mohler, one evangelical leader who reliably and consistently offers pastoral perspective and cultural guidance on a wide range of issues. He doesn’t shy away from difficult topics or stories. To borrow the old sporting phrase, he calls it like he sees it. 

Earlier this week on The Briefing, the Southern Seminary president’s daily podcast, Dr. Mohler, relevant to President Trump’s post, opined on the importance of preserving and maintaining the dignity of the presidency:

The President also needs to understand that in order to maintain the political authority he has, even the political authority in his own party, the political authority that emanates from the Oval Office, he needs to add dignity continually to his administration, rather than to allow by any source that dignity to be subverted and minimized and compromised. 

I think this is a good lesson for all of us, regardless of the responsibility we bear. The President of the United States bears an entirely unique responsibility on behalf of the entire nation. But as Christians, I think we do understand that dignity in this respect, again, human dignity in the Imago Dei that’s non-negotiable.

Dr. Mohler enjoys enormous credibility and influence because he’s a fearless, dependable, and unapologetic defender of the faith. He’s blunt and forthright but also possesses Christian charity — he recognizes human foibles, gives individuals the benefit of the doubt, and works every day to translate the world through the lens of God’s Word. 

It remains both curious and frustrating when pastors or evangelical leaders ignore the unfettered killing of preborn children, the hijacking of marriage, and the sexual mutilation of minors as part of the transgender revolution. With their silence they’re not only forfeiting their platform but also abdicating their responsibility as spiritual shepherds of their flocks.

Moral issues are not partisan. The world may have politicized the subjects of abortion, marriage and human sexuality — but that doesn’t mean those topics are forbidden to be discussed in the pulpit. 

In fact, it’s all the more reason they should be unpacked and explained. People in the pews are hungry for relevant and practical cultural translation. The Bible can speak to everything that is unfolding. It makes no sense why a pastor should stay silent while speaking inside his church about what’s happening outside its doors.

We need Christian leaders who will speak up consistently and not just when they may have a political ax to grind.

TPUSA Halftime Show Message: “It’s okay to love Jesus and your country.”

This past Sunday night featured one Super Bowl, but two halftime shows — an illustration of an ever-widening cultural divide in America.

Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show” drew over 6.1 million viewers on YouTube — and over 25 million when you include replays and aggregated views across other streaming sites.

Prior to the event, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet stated, “The All-American Halftime Show is an opportunity for all Americans to enjoy a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family, and freedom. We set out to provide an entertainment option that will be fun, excellent, and exciting for the entire family while millions are gathered together for the big game.”

Airing on NBC in tens of millions of other homes on Sunday night was the performer known as “Bad Bunny” — Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — a rapper, singer, and professional wrestler. A native of Puerto Rico, his show was performed entirely in Spanish. 

The TPUSA show featured Kid Rock urging viewers to read their Bibles and turn their lives over to Christ. Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett also performed. 

Based on social media chatter, it was Brice’s song, “Country Nowadays,” that seemed to strike a strong chord with audiences. Debuting it for the Super Bowl audience, the 46-year-old country singer sang about his frustrations of living in a culturally upside-down world:

I just want to catch my fish, drive my truck … I just want to cut my grass, feed my dogs, wear my boots, not turn the TV on, sit and watch the evening news … be told if I tell my own daughter that little boys ain’t little girls, I’d be up the creek in hot water …”

The chorus drove the point home:

It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays … The direction the fingers point when everything goes up in flames … Saying I’m some right-wing devil ’cause I was gospel Jesus raised … It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays

On Truth Social, President Trump weighed in on the Bad Bunny performance.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children who are watching throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.”

Not surprisingly, the Washington Post saw things differently, stating, “In general, the show had the kind of wholesome, traditional family values that would have fit right in with some of the more sentimental commercials that appeared during the game.”

Super Bowl halftime shows have come a long way since the 1970s and 1980s when they regularly featured college marching bands. During the first matchup in 1967, the University of Arizona played music from the “Sound of Music” as well as the “William Tell Overture.” For Super Bowl XI in 1977, the Walt Disney Company produced renditions of “It’s A Big, Wide, Wonderful World,” the Mickey Mouse Club theme song, and “It’s a Small World.”

It’s an even smaller world in 2026 thanks to the ability to stream alternative shows like Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime” extravaganza nearly everywhere anywhere.  

While Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, didn’t attend the show, she praised the production and concluded the point of the effort was to communicate that “It’s okay to love Jesus and your country.”

Amen.