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 public universities, to have a billboard with the Ten Commandments in “large, legible print.”
Opponents question the constitutionality of the law and warn that lawsuits are likely to follow. Supporters say the purpose of the measure is not only religious, but also has historical significance. The language of the law 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.
Shortly after the governor signed the law, civil rights groups and organizations that seek to keep religion out of government announced plans to file suit against the law.
The law prevents students from receiving an equal education and causes children of other faiths to feel unsafe in school, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said in a joint statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“Even among those who believe in a version of the Ten Commandments, the specific text they adhere to may vary by denomination or tradition. The government should not take sides in this theological debate,” the groups said.
Similar bills requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms have been proposed in other states, such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah. However, due to threats of legal challenges over the constitutionality of such measures, no state other than Louisiana has succeeded in passing the bills.
Legal disputes over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are nothing fresh.
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 fresh 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.
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Associated Press reporter Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.
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The article has been corrected to clarify that the deadline for the governor to act has not passed. The governor signed the bill on Wednesday.
