A U.S. appeals court has cleared the way for a Louisiana law requiring poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms to take effect.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-6 to lift a block that a lower court first placed on the law in 2024. In the opinion released Friday, the court said it was too early to make a judgment call on the constitutionality of the law.
That’s partly because it’s not yet clear how prominently schools may display the religious text, if teachers will refer to the Ten Commandments during classes, or if other things like the Mayflower Compact or Declaration of Independence will also be displayed, the majority opinion said.
Without those sorts of details, the panel decided it didn’t have enough information to weigh any First Amendment issues that might arise from the law. In other words, there aren’t enough facts available to “permit judicial judgment rather than speculation,” the majority wrote in the opinion.
But the six judges who voted against the decision wrote a series of dissents, some arguing that the case was ripe for judicial review and others saying that the law exposes children to government-endorsed religion in a place they are required to be, presenting a clear constitutional burden.
Circuit Judge James L. Dennis wrote that the law "is precisely the kind of establishment the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent.”
The ruling comes after the full court heard arguments in the cases in January following a ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that Louisiana’s law was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that has been challenged in federal court.
Texas' law took effect on Sept. 1, marking the largest attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. Multiple school districts were barred from posting them after federal judges issued injunctions in two cases against the law, but they have already gone up in many classrooms across the state as districts paid to have the posters printed themselves or accepted donations.
The laws are among the pushes by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public school classrooms. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while backers argue that the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.
The laws have been challenged by families representing a variety of religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, and clergy, in addition to nonreligious families.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The court found that the law had no secular purpose but served a plainly religious purpose.
And in 2005, the Supreme Court held that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin.
This story has been updated to correct the day of the week the ruling was issued to Friday, not Tuesday.
FILE - A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
BORMIO, Italy (AP) — The steepest hill ski mountaineering athlete Ana Alonso Rodriguez had to climb on her way to an Olympic bronze medal involved no course at all. No snow or competitors, either.
Just trusting in herself, and an injured knee, to give it a try and get to the starting line at the Milan Cortina Games.
In September, while riding her bike in a training session, the Spanish racer was hit by a car. She tore ligaments in her knee and injured her shoulder. Surgery would've surely meant sitting out the Winter Games, where her sport — one that involves skiing uphill and then downhill — was making its Olympic debut.
So, she rehabbed, instead, and hoped just to be able to compete in Bormio in some fashion. This bronze medal, the one she earned Thursday, felt almost surreal. On her way to the finish line, she even glanced over her shoulder not once or twice but three or four times just to make certain the medal, indeed, belonged to her.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said the 31-year-old Alonso Rodriguez, who is expected to combine with teammate and Olympic men's gold medalist Oriol Cardona Coll for the mixed relay on Saturday. “I was so emotional. Trying to believe that I achieved this medal, it was a beautiful moment for me.”
Back in early October, Alonso Rodriguez posted the news of her crash on Instagram. Along with it, a picture: Her left arm in a sling and her left knee in a bulky brace. She explained that she saw the car at the last moment and, realizing there was no escape, braced for the impact.
That, she wrote, prevented something worse from happening. There was another picture of her on the street, with people around, and a car windshield smashed in the background.
She vowed to work her way back to the skimo course, posting a note at the time that read, through translation: “Just 7 months ago I fulfilled a dream (of making the Olympics) that was born when I was 7. I don’t think life has taken me this far to leave me here. This is not an end. It’s just a new challenge to climb with determination, faith and a lot of passion.”
About three months after the crash, she returned to skis. By mid-January, she was back on the World Cup racing circuit.
And by early February, she was on the podium again, taking second with Cardona Coll in a relay race.
That's why she had so much confidence Thursday as she navigated a course that included traversing through a diamond-shaped pattern before taking the skis off to go up stairs in ski boots, followed by another vertical ascent with skis back on and finally the downhill. She finished 10.45 seconds behind winner Marianne Fatton of Switzerland, but, truth be told, just lining up was the goal.
This medal, well, it was extra.
“I wanted to focus on myself and be proud of my performance, no matter the results,” said Alonso Rodriguez, the silver medalist at the 2025 world championships. “So I only wanted to cross the finish line being happy with my performance.”
Next up, the mixed team event on Saturday to close out the racing program in Bormio. She and Cardona Coll are expected to be paired up — the official pairings come out later — and will be among the favorites. It's a powerful field that includes Emily Harrop, the silver-medal winner, who's expected to combine with Thibault Anselmet, the bronze medalist in the men's race, to represent France. A Swiss team, led by Fatton, will be in the medal mix, too.
Count teammate Cardona Coll as impressed with Alonso Rodriguez's performance.
“We were warming up and we realized Ana got third place and we had the first medal with us,” Cardona Coll explained. “That was a push of motivation.”
For Alonso Rodriguez, her push of motivation came from another mountain, in Cortina, where Italian ski racer Federica Brignone captured gold in the super-G and giant slalom. Brignone returned after breaking multiple bones in her left leg last March.
“We always had belief I could be here and give my best performance,” Alonso Rodriguez said. “The last days when Federica won two gold medals were an inspiration, because I know she has been working very hard.
“At the end, the hard work paid off. I’m so happy for her and for myself.”
This story has been updated to correct that Alonso Rodriguez's social media post was in October, not September.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez competes during a ski mountaineering women's sprint heat, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez celebrates taking third place in a ski mountaineering women's sprint final, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez reacts after winning the bronze medal in a ski mountaineering women's sprint final, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez celebrates after winning the bronze medal in a ski mountaineering women's sprint final, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
