(The Lion) — A federal appeals court will take another look at Louisiana’s mandate requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public-school classroom – a move that could reshape religious freedom in the public square.

A three-person panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled Louisiana’s law was unconstitutional, but the reconsideration signals a potential shift in how religious symbols are permitted in public spaces – with implications that extend far beyond Louisiana classrooms.

The court announced this week in a brief order that it would hold a “rehearing en banc” in the case – meaning all the court’s judges will weigh the law, rather than only the smaller panel of judges that previously ruled.

“I’m glad to see the Fifth Circuit is taking this en banc,” Attorney General Liz Murrill responded to the news on X. “Looking forward to those arguments.”

Louisiana’s first-of-its-kind law, which has since sparked similar measures in other states, required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms, with the option to also include other historical documents such as the Mayflower Compact and Declaration of Independence. The law noted that recognizing the historical importance of the Ten Commandments “accords with our nation’s history and faithfully reflects the understanding of the founders of our nation” for self-government.

“History records that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America, stated that ‘we have staked the whole future of our new nation …. upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments,” the law reads. Including the display of the commandments “in the education of our children is part of our state and national history, culture, and tradition.”

Yet shortly after the law was signed in 2024, civil liberties groups sued over it, arguing that it violated separation of church and state. The groups pointed to a 1980 Supreme Court decision, Stone v. Graham, in which the court found that public school classroom displays of the commandments are unconstitutional.

Citing that ruling, a three-person panel of the appellate court in June ruled that Louisiana’s law was “plainly unconstitutional.”

Backers of displaying the commandments in school classrooms, as The Lion has reported, argue that religious references should “not be scrubbed from the public square.” Religious symbols have been part of America since its founding, Becket religious liberty law firm argues, “appearing in everything from state seals and flags to our national monuments and currency.”

Louisiana officials also have pointed to a long and storied use of the Ten Commandments in western civilization, including displays of the commandments in the Supreme Court and a Moses portrait in the Capitol building.

“These displays – like countless others across our Nation – simply recognize the “historical significance” that the Ten Commandments have “as one of the foundations of our legal system,” the state argued in a brief.