BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) — Although a lawsuit is already underway against a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms, the details of how the rule will be implemented and enforced remain unclear.
There are conservative efforts across the country to integrate religion into the classroom. For example, Florida passed a law allowing school districts to apply volunteer military chaplains to counsel students, and Oklahoma’s top education official ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum.
In Louisiana, the logistics of the new law are still unclear.
Unless a court stops the law, schools have just over five months before they are required to display a Ten Commandments poster in all public schools and state-funded universities. But it is unclear whether the new law has the necessary force to enforce the requirement and punish those who refuse to comply.
Supporters of the law say the thousands of posters can be paid for through donations. Critics argue the law is an unfunded mandate that could burden schools. And teachers at some schools have said they are unlikely to put up the posters, including in the “blue city” of New Orleans, where residents and officials have a history of resisting conservative measures.
Financing the needs
Louisiana has more than 1,300 public schools. Louisiana State University has nearly 1,000 classrooms on its main campus in Baton Rouge alone and at seven other locations across the state. That means thousands of posters will be needed to implement the new law.
The new law requires the Louisiana Department of Education to cite and post on its website sources that can provide the posters free of charge.
Lawmakers supporting the bill said during debate in May that the posters, or funds to print them, would likely be donated to schools in the deep Bible Belt state. Nationwide praise for the bill from conservative groups and figures, including most recently former President Donald Trump, could lead to outside financial support for the mandate.
The Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian conservative organization, has already set up a page on its website for donations that will be used “specifically for the production and distribution of Ten Commandments displays to educational institutions throughout Louisiana.”
But the question of what happens if a school does not receive enough donations has remained unanswered for months.
“So schools have the option to raise the funds, or they (the posters) can be donated. But what if you can’t raise the funds or you can’t find a donor?” asked Senator Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who voted against the bill, during debate on the bill last month.
“I don’t know what happens then,” replied Republican Senator Adam Bass, who co-authored the law.
The Associated Press reached out to several co-authors of the bill, including Bass and the offices of Attorney General Liz Murrill, Louisiana Secretary of Education Cade Brumley and the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, but received no responses to questions about funding.
During the debate, MPs supporting the bill stressed that the law clearly states that donations will be used to purchase the posters. Others believe that the wording of the law could still allow the purchase of posters using public funds.
“Louisiana law does not appear to prohibit the use of public funds to finance Ten Commandments displays. Such use of taxpayer money would only exacerbate this blatant constitutional violation,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which opposes the law.
The law states that it is “not required” for a public school district to spend its funds to purchase displays. Instead, “to fund the displays at no cost, the public school district shall either accept donations to purchase the displays or accept donated displays.”
Opponents argue that despite sufficient donations, the state is still spending money and resources to defend itself against a lawsuit over a requirement they believe is unconstitutional.
But their supporters say they are ready to fight this battle.
Enforcement of the new law
Chris Dier, Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, said he has no plans to display the Ten Commandments in his classroom.
“I don’t believe in doing anything that violates the Constitution and harms students,” said Dier, who teaches at a high school in New Orleans.
It is unclear whether non-compliance will result in punishment, as the law does not list consequences. While the law requires Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt “rules and regulations” to ensure the “proper implementation” of the rule, enforcement could fall to parish school boards or local school districts.
A similar law passed last year requires “In God We Trust” to be displayed in classrooms. Enforcement and penalties for noncompliance with that law will be determined by local education officials, said Kevin Calbert, a spokesman for the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The AP emailed 55 school board members in parishes across the state, including rural and urban parishes in Republican-dominated and Democratic-leaning areas, asking whether they support the law and how they plan to enforce it. Two responded that they support the requirement.
Carlos Luis Zervigon, vice president of the Orleans Parish School Board, disagreed, calling the law “blatantly unconstitutional.”
“I have not heard of this being discussed or of any interest in enforcing it,” said the former history teacher. “My instinct tells me I would not do anything unless I am forced to.”
With schools closed during the summer and many school boards meeting less frequently, Zervigon said his agency has not yet discussed the requirement, but if he is tasked with implementing and enforcing the rule, he will likely take a “wait and see” approach until the court rules.
“I could imagine drafting a resolution that might say something like, ‘We will not enforce it until we have legal clarity on whether it is constitutional or not,'” he said.
But if New Orleans takes the lead, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry could “retaliate,” Zervigon said.
Landry, a Republican, had previously attempted to punish New Orleans after city officials expressed opposition to enforcing Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban.
