BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) — Louisiana will become the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms, according to a law signed Wednesday by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
The bill, drafted by Republicans, would require all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities, to have a billboard with the Ten Commandments in “large, easy-to-read type.” Although Landry’s bill has not received final approval, the deadline for the governor to make a decision — signing or vetoing the bill — has passed.
Opponents question the constitutionality of the law and warn that lawsuits are likely to follow. Supporters say the measure’s purpose 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 displays will include a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “have been an important part of the American public education system for nearly three centuries.” They must be in classrooms by early 2025.
The posters are to be financed through donations. State funds are not to be used to implement the mandate, the bill states.
The law also “allows” – but does not require – the display of the Mayflower Treaty, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance in public K-12 schools.
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states, including TexasOklahoma and Utah. However, due to threats of litigation over the constitutionality of such measures, no state except Louisiana has succeeded in enacting the bills.
Legal disputes over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are nothing novel.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar law in Kentucky was unconstitutional and violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress “shall make no law establishing a State religion.” The Supreme Court found that the law had a distinctly religious purpose, not a secular one.
The controversial law in Louisiana, a state in the Bible Belt, comes in a novel era of conservative leadership under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards in January.
Republicans also hold a two-thirds majority in the legislature and hold all statewide elected offices, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda in the legislative session that ended earlier this month.
