Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Federal Judge issues MAJOR ORDER that shocks MAGA

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

We have a 10 Commandment fight that has broken out in the Bible Belt, and a victory — although likely short term — for religious freedom. Michael Popok breaks down a new emergency order from an Louisiana Federal Judge blocking the MAGA Louisiana Governor and Legislature from compelling that every public class room display a giant 10 Commandment poster, and why Justice Alito — an arch conservative Christian — will likely overturn it on the way to the Supreme Court. Ollie: Head to https://ollie.com and use promo code: LEGALAF to receive 60% OFF your FIRST BOX of meals when you subscribe today! Join the LegalAF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/legalAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Court going to do? What is the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans going to do? I'm Michael Popak on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. I'm going to break it all down for you right now. We're only one week out from the election and already we're seeing the battle of good and evil of shoving religion down our throat in the chipped away world where there's very little barrier between church and state anymore because the United States Supreme Court, which invited MAGA right-wing legislatures like those in Louisiana to try to do what other places have tried and failed to have the Ten Commandments prominently displayed in public spaces in an education. Now, they try to work their way around it in a couple of ways. They try to invite from the Supreme Court a pass by arguing that, well, we're not using public funds.

These are donated posters. Okay, but you still have the state standing behind the poster and holding it up, which looks to be a clear violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution in the First Amendment because it looks like the state is promoting a religious point of view. It may be a dominant one, the Judeo-Christian ethic, I get it, but it's still shoving it

down their throat on a public square. And the question is, what is the United States Supreme Court going to do it? For this judge, Judge DeGravalis, an Obama appointee, he said it is unconstitutional on its face. It's a violation of the establishment clause. It is coercive. It is forcing students every day, every hour, every day of their public education to stare at a religious poster. And that has to be violative of the First Amendment. Of course, the attorney general is a right-wing MAGA in Louisiana, jumping up and down with her hair on fire. Oh my God, this is against the law and against the Constitution and they have the right to do this.

So is the right-wing MAGA governor and of course the legislature just passed the law. But John Gravalis is digging in and now it's going to go up to the Fifth Circuit. Now, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is going to have to apply the law of the United States Supreme Court. And the problem is the law of the United States Supreme Court has changed considerably since the last couple of times this A Supreme Court looked at the issue of 10 commandments in the public square. There's actually three cases in which the 10 commandments have been tried to be erected somewhere in the public square, either in courthouses or in government center or here in public schools, and the Supreme Court

has ruled. But the Supreme Court has changed a lot since the first case in 1980 involving putting up since the first case in 1980 involving putting up a Kentucky law requiring it in the schools. Or in 2005, when the Supreme Court ruling about a Kentucky law and a Texas law came out differently in both cases, allowing the establishment of erecting of a Ten Commandments in the Texas State Capitol, finding that it was both religious and secular somehow, but finding it to be for a purely religious reason in Kentucky in 1980 and not allowing it, and in 2005 also in Kentucky, finding that Ten Commandments should not be installed in two courthouses. But that's a long time ago. Those are basically old timey times with this United States Supreme Court, who spent much of the last two terms chipping away at the wall between church and state. I'm not sure there's

much of a wall between the separation of church and state left. And their view of the Establishment Clause is not the view of the United States Supreme Court in 1980 or 2005 or modern America, I think even today. Today's episode is brought to you by OLLI. And I'm not the only one excited about this new sponsor. My furry part of the family. Our Lab Border Collie Mixed Lily is too. Clean, fresh nutrition your dog needs and five flavors, they'll absolutely flip over. You don't have to be a veterinary nutritionist

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They offer a clean bowl guarantee on their first box, so if you're not completely satisfied you can get your money back. That's olly.com at enter code LegalAF to get 60% off your first box. So here's what Kentucky did, sorry, what Louisiana did that the Fifth Circuit's going to have to address and the United States Supreme Court, I'll kind of give you a view of how I think this is going to play out because I think this poster is going to stay. Let me tell you what they did. First thing they did in Louisiana is they didn't take any public funding. They're not spending any public dollars for it. They're getting posters that are volunteered, that are given to them in charity. I still don't think that stops the actual public school looks like it's actually promoting a religion

but it does resolve one issue with the public funds are not being used. The second thing is they have a disclaimer, a context label on the bottom of each poster that says a version of this that this that the Ten Commandments was a prominent part of public education for at least three centuries in America. Not sure that's exactly true, but they're saying that. And what they're trying to do there is to appeal to those Supreme Court cases that talk about it's okay if you use something

like the 10 commandments for secular purposes, if that's possible, and not for purely religious purposes. So if there's a tie, it's half and half. The Supreme Court's going to say, oh, under our prior ruling in McCreary versus the ACLU in Kentucky or Van Orton versus Perry in 2005, it looks like it's close enough to being secular too, so it stays. And that's what they're aiming for. I mean, you have to know that the legislature in Louisiana

knew about these three major cases, right? Knew about the Kentucky case in 1980, the Texas case in 2005, and the Kentucky case in 2005 before the Supreme Court. They know the Supreme Court precedent around the Ten Commandments, and they tried to draft around it to have it survive. And now we're going to see the battle. The first salvo fired in the fight is this federal judge, Adi Gravalis, who thought it wasn't even a close call based on the history and how it was passed and the reason for it, even though Donald Trump has supported this thing. This is not secular in nature by any stretch of the imagination. It's religious and therefore, it violates the establishment clause of our US Constitution. But you know the problem. The problem is the Fifth Circuit leans all the way

to the right. It's mainly dominated by there's at least I think six different appointments that are from Trump alone to the Fifth Circuit that also sits in New Orleans. So they're going to block this ban. So let's just go through the procedure. As of today, they can't put up the poster. So that's the trial judge banning the enforcement of the law, but the Fifth Circuit is going to block the ban. We talk a lot about blocking the ban. That's what an appellate court can do to a lower level court. They're going to block his order. Then the groups that sued here like the ACLU are going to take their case and appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is going to likely take it. Now,

whether they take it this term, the first stop on the train is going to be a, I think it's Sam Alito, unfortunately, for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And things come up through these justices first who have to make the decision on an emergency application. So if the state or ACLU lose, they're going to take an emergency application. It's up to the first judge on the first stop on the train, the first justice on the train to make a decision whether they're going to get that emergency stay or not one way or the other. And then maybe over to the full Supreme Court for a vote. And if it's not done on full briefing and oral argument, we call that a shadow docket. So this could be easily done by shadow docket by the MAGA, where Alito turns it down or agrees with the Fifth

Circuit, denies the ACLU's trying to block the block of the ban. If you followed that. And then we're up at the United States Supreme Court, I don't know, in 2025 or 2026. In the meantime, the posters are donated and the Ten Commandments is firmly entrenched inside the school systems of Louisiana. If it finally gets there, I think it's gonna be difficult for the ACLU to overcome what is a not only a MAGA right wing Supreme Court, but one that is very religious and likes to shove their religion down everybody's throats. And if you can take away anything from this group of six MAGA alt-right,

even Amy Coney Barrett, is that when it comes to church and state, they side with church. When it comes to church and state, they side with the church. So they'll go back and either say that they were wrong in 1980, or the court was wrong in 2005, or that they'll say even under, we don't have to overturn those rulings because we find that Louisiana did it right, and they're not using public funds, and it's all secular, not religious,

and so everybody can go suck it. Everybody can go suck it, part is mine, but you know where this is going. But first stop on the train, we got a ruling by a federal judge to block or to ban the new law in Louisiana up to the Fifth Circuit, I'm sure in the next few days. They'll probably block the ban. There'll be another appeal to the United States Supreme Court up through Justice Alito,

and then we're going to see what's going to happen. So there's going to be two or three steps over the next several weeks that we're going to report on, and you know where you can go for the analysis about what's going to happen here on the Minus Touch Network. And of course, on the new channel, Legal AF, thank you to all 30,000 or so of you who joined and subscribed to Legal AF after the election, which shows us that what we're doing is right and necessary and meaningful. And this community feels that way about it, and so do we. We take great responsibility in that, sitting at that intersection of law and meaningful. This community feels that way about it and so do we. We take great responsibility in that sitting at that intersection of law and politics. So until my next analysis, my next Legal AF podcast, this is Michael Popak and I'm reporting.

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