BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.
The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action — to sign or veto the bill — has lapsed.
Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
The displays, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.
The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation.
The law also “authorizes” — but does not require — the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has had success in making the bills law.
Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.
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 says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
Louisiana’s controversial law, in a state ensconced 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 GOP also has a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month.
France had the right idea lowkey. People have the right to freedom FROM religion
their secularism’s been pared down to a chauvinistic tool, proud history but toothless unless its bullying muslims.
need that hardcore state atheism soviet style, even China does not go far enough
Oh definitely. The original idea was great but now it’s just used as a cudgel to beat on non-white people.
In other news, Marxist-leninists are right again about state atheism
You mean the type that repressed religious people even if their practices were pro-soviet, and then everyone just pretended to be atheists then immediately praised Jeebus after 1991 because they never actually ditched their beliefs?
this is just dishonest, why won’t anyone think of the vanishingly small minorities inside of a rotten institution dedicated to the oppression of women and the restoration of the tsar???
people “returning” to the church after the collapse were not closeted believers from before the revolution, the supervised church during the union had a constituency and it expanded when state-based social services fell off. we don’t need to resort to a psychological history of universal taqiyya to explain clear material causes and effects
France is currently trying to ban Muslim children from going to school so clearly something went awry