In a move that has sparked controversy and legal challenges, every public school classroom in Louisiana, from elementary to university level, has been ordered to display a poster featuring the Ten Commandments, as reported by BBC. This Republican-backed measure, signed into law by Governor Jeff Landry on Wednesday, is the first of its kind in the United States.
The new law mandates that the sacred text be displayed in "large, easily readable font" on an 11-by-14-inch poster, with the commandments being "the central focus" of the display. The posters must include a four-paragraph "context statement" describing how the directives "were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries."
The law's author, Republican state lawmaker Dodie Horton, has spoken of the importance of returning a "moral code" to classrooms. "It's like hope is in the air everywhere," Horton was quoted as saying when the bill received the governor's approval.
BREAKING NEWS: Louisiana just became the 1st U.S. state to require the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms. pic.twitter.com/aGtfEehxsj
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) June 19, 2024
While Christians regard the Ten Commandments as fundamental rules from God on how to live, opponents argue that the law violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion. "The law was 'blatantly unconstitutional,'" read a joint statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
BREAKING: We're suing Louisiana for requiring all public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
Public schools are not Sunday schools.
— ACLU (@ACLU) June 19, 2024
Similar laws have recently been proposed by other Republican-led states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah. The US Supreme Court has previously ruled against a similar law in Kentucky, striking it down in 1980 on the grounds that requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools "had no secular legislative purpose" and was "plainly religious in nature."
