Louisiana classrooms now required by law to display the Ten Commandments

CNN
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Louisiana public faculties are actually required to show the Ten Commandments in all school rooms, after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the requirement into regulation Wednesday.

Home Invoice 71, accredited by state lawmakers final month, mandates {that a} poster-size show of the Ten Commandments with “giant, simply readable font” be in each classroom at faculties that obtain state funding, from kindergarten by way of the college stage.

The laws specifies the precise language that should be printed on the classroom shows and descriptions that the textual content of the Ten Commandments should be the central focus of the poster or framed doc.

Earlier than signing the invoice, Landry known as it “one in every of (his) favorites.”

“If you wish to respect the rule of regulation, you gotta begin from the unique regulation given which was Moses. … He bought his commandments from God,” Landry stated.

Opponents of the invoice have argued {that a} state requiring a non secular textual content in all school rooms would violate the institution clause of the US Structure, which says that Congress can “make no regulation respecting an institution of faith.”

Civil liberties teams swiftly vowed to problem the regulation – which makes Louisiana the primary within the nation to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in each classroom that receives state funding – in courtroom.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Individuals United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Faith Basis stated that the regulation violates longstanding Supreme Court docket precedent and the First Modification and would lead to “unconstitutional spiritual coercion of scholars.”

“The First Modification guarantees that all of us get to resolve for ourselves what spiritual beliefs, if any, to carry and observe, with out stress from the federal government. Politicians haven’t any enterprise imposing their most well-liked spiritual doctrine on college students and households in public faculties,” the teams stated in a joint assertion.

Supporters of the regulation, in defending the measure, have leaned on the 2022 US Supreme Court docket choice in Kennedy v. Bremerton College District, which gave a highschool soccer coach his job again after he was disciplined over an issue involving prayer on the sector. The Supreme Court docket dominated that the coach’s prayers amounted to non-public speech, protected by the First Modification, and couldn’t be restricted by the varsity district.

The choice lowered the bar between church and state in an opinion that authorized specialists predicted would enable extra spiritual expression in public areas. On the time, the courtroom clarified {that a} authorities entity doesn’t essentially violate the institution clause by allowing spiritual expression in public.

Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, the Republican writer of the invoice, stated on the invoice signing that “it’s like hope is within the air in every single place.” Horton has dismissed considerations from Democratic opponents of the measure, saying the Ten Commandments are rooted in authorized historical past and her invoice would place a “ethical code” within the classroom.

This story has been up to date with further particulars.