Louisiana passes law to force classrooms to display The Ten Commandments
Louisiana passed a law forcing all public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
The southern state is the first in the nation to implement the policy under a bill signed into law by Republican Governor Jeff Landry on Wednesday.
The Republican Party-authored legislation requires the display to be in “large, easy-to-read font” in all public classrooms, from preschools to state-funded universities.
Although the bill has not yet received final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action – to sign or veto the bill – has passed.
Opponents question the constitutionality of the law, with the ACLU announcing it has already filed a lawsuit against Louisiana.
Louisiana passed a law forcing all classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. Pictured: Workers repaint a Ten Commandments billboard on Interstate 71 on Election Day near Chenoweth, Ohio, Tuesday, November 7, 2023
“The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the ACLU said in a statement.
“The First Amendment promises that each of us can decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, we should hold and practice, without government pressure.
“Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.”
Supporters say the purpose of the measure is not only religious, but also has historical significance.
The law’s language describes the Ten Commandments as “fundamental documents of our state and national government.”
The southern state is the first in the nation to implement the policy under a bill signed into law by Republican Governor Jeff Landry on Wednesday.
The displays, which will be accompanied by a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for nearly three centuries,” are scheduled to be in classrooms by early 2025.
The posters would be paid for by donations. State resources will not be used to implement the mandate, based on the wording in the legislation.
The law also “authorizes” – but does not require – the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance to be displayed in K-12 public schools.
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms have also been proposed in other states TexasOklahoma and Utah.
However, the threat of a legal battle over the constitutionality of such measures has quashed efforts in other states.
Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.
The Republican Party-authored legislation requires the display to be in “large, easy-to-read font” in all public classrooms, from preschools to state-funded universities. Pictured: Workers remove a Ten Commandments monument at West Union High School, June 9, 2003, in West Union, Ohio
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The Supreme Court ruled that the law had no secular purpose, but rather served a clearly religious purpose.
Louisiana’s controversial law, in a state anchored in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in the state under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in January.
The Republican Party also has a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every elected position statewide, paving the way for lawmakers to push a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month .