A Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in all public school classrooms is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

A panel of three judges in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said the law, which was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, on behalf of parents of Louisiana school children from various religious backgrounds, is “plainly unconstitutional.” 

The judges found the Louisiana law “will cause an ‘irreparable’ deprivation of [the plaintiffs’] First Amendment rights.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement Friday that she “strongly” disagrees with the decision.

“We will immediately seek relief from the full Fifth Circuit and, if necessary, the United States Supreme Court,” she said.

The law would require all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities to exhibit a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font.”

The measure calls the Ten Commandments a “foundational documents of our state and national government.” The bill’s authors sought to avoid claims that the law preferred one religion over another by adopting a version of the Ten Commandments not specific to any particular religious group. The law also requires that the posters be displayed with a “context statement” that notes that the Commandments have long been a prominent part of American public education.

Opponents of the measure, which was signed into law last June by Governor Jeff Landry, argue it violates the First Amendment guarantee to religious liberty and the prohibition of government establishment of religion.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles previously declared the law unconstitutional last fall and ordered state education officials not to enforce it.