Tuesday morning, a federal district court judge ruled Louisiana’ Ten Commandments law unconstitutional. As it stands now, the law requires schools that accept public funding to post the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.

The 177-page ruling claims that the new law is not only a violation of the First Amendment, but also discriminatory and coercive.

As reported by the Daily Citizen, the state’s House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in the spring and was signed into law by Louisiana’s governor in June.

Supporters of the law say they expected a loss at this stage of the legal challenge.

The state representative who authored the legislation told KEEL News, “The Judge is an Obama appointee and we expected him to rule against us. It is a process.”

In a statement to local media, Louisiana’s attorney general made clear her office intends to defend the Ten Commandments displays in classrooms.

“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal … This is far from over.”

Focus on the Family applauds the state of Louisiana for passing this law and for their resolve to defend it legally.

We are hopeful that it will be more favorably received at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and upheld as constitutional.

On Election Night 2024, the pro-life movement finally broke the abortion industry’s winning streak on ballot measures.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022, the pro-life movement had lost abortion ballot measures in all seven states that had voted on an initiative.

Voters in Michigan, California, Vermont and Ohio had passed constitutional amendments codifying the “right” to abortion.

Voters in Kansas, Kentucky and Montana failed to approve pro-life ballot measures protecting the right to life.

But that losing streak — praise God — ended on November 5.

Voters in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota rejected radical abortion amendments that would have placed the “right” to abortion in their state constitutions.

As we’ve previously written, because life won in these three states, “it is estimated that more than 51,000 babies will be saved from abortion every year.”

That’s a huge deal and is great cause for celebration. Unfortunately, pro-abortion ballot measures passed in seven other states. However, five of those states already had lenient pro-abortion laws on the books. Two states — Missouri and Arizona — had enacted pro-life laws that will now be overturned because of their respective constitutional amendments.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted on changes to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which could increase gas prices by as much as 65 cents a gallon by 2025.

In this instance, what happens in California doesn’t stay in California. Higher gas prices in the Golden State means increased agricultural costs, which means all of us will see higher prices at the grocery store.

“Over a third of the country’s vegetables and over three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California,” the California Department of Food and Agriculture reported.

That’s the reason California is called “the land of fruits and nuts,” in this native-Californian’s opinion, and certainly not because of the people born there.

California already has some of the highest gas prices in the nation, reported Contra Costa News, stating, “On Saturday morning [Nov. 9], the average gallon of gas in California costs $4.14 compared to the $3.09 national average. In Contra Costa County, the average is $4.60 per gallon.”

CARB explained the increased restrictions on fossil fuels:

“The LCFS reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by setting a declining carbon intensity target for transportation fuels used in California; producers that don’t meet established benchmarks buy credits from those that do. …

“The updates set targets to reduce the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuel pool by 30% by 2030 and by 90% by 2045.”

Americans in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota voted against legalizing recreational marijuana, reflecting research showing cannabis use causes physical and mental health problems.

Citizens in North and South Dakota rejected ballot measures legalizing recreational marijuana for people over 21 years old by 3- and 6-point margins, respectively.

Florida put a pro-marijuana amendment on its ballot, which would have enshrined the right to buy and use recreational marijuana in the state constitution.

A majority of Floridians (55.9%) actually voted in favor of Amendment 3 — but citizens can’t change Florida’s constitution without a 60% supermajority.

Hopefully, these results indicate a growing awareness among citizens that marijuana is not nearly as safe as manufacturers make it seem.

The most recent U.S. Survey on Drug Use and Health found 18 million marijuana users, about a third of all users over 18-years-old, demonstrated symptoms of cannabis use disorder (CUD), or inability to control their use.

Addiction or dependence on high-potency cannabis increases users’ likelihood of developing cannabis-associated psychotic symptoms (CAPS) or triggering a chronic psychotic disorder.

In 2019, The Lancet reported that people who smoked high-THC marijuana daily were five-times as likely to develop a psychotic disorder as those who didn’t smoke.