NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A bill signed this week makes Louisiana the only state to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom in public schools and universities, reigniting a long-running debate over the role of religion in government institutions.
The new law will require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in poster-sized, “large, easily readable font” in all public elementary, middle, and high school classrooms and at state universities next year.
Civil rights groups are planning to sue to block the law, signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, arguing that it unconstitutionally infringes on protections against government coercion of religion. “Governor Landry will be in court,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
State officials are highlighting the history of the Ten Commandments, which the bill calls “a foundational document of state and national government.”
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other state legislatures, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah.
Is it reasonable and necessary, or unconstitutional and harmful?
Father Steve Ryan, principal of Archbishop Shaw High School, a Catholic school outside New Orleans, said he was pleased to see the Ten Commandments posted on the walls of a public school building.
“These laws, which are part of the Judeo-Christian tradition, are good safeguards for society. They’re actually reasonable,” Ryan said.
In Baton Rouge, Attorney General Liz Murray, a Republican ally of Landry’s, said she looks forward to defending the law.
“The Ten Commandments are so simple (Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not betray your wife) yet so fundamental to the foundation of our country,” she said on social media.
Opponents of the law argued that eroding constitutional barriers between religion and government was illegal and unfair.
“We worry about the families and students who attend Louisiana’s public schools,” Laser said, “who come from a variety of traditions and backgrounds, a variety of religious and non-religious beliefs, and when they see their government favoring certain religious beliefs over others, it makes students in their classrooms feel like outsiders.”
Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, Chris Dyer, echoed those concerns and said he has no plans to display the Ten Commandments in his classroom.
“We should not be doing something that is unconstitutional and will harm students,” he said. It is unclear if there will be any penalties for not following the order.
The law was praised by former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was fired in 2003 after refusing to comply with a federal judge’s order to remove a 5,280-pound (2.4 metric tons) granite “Ten Commandments” exhibit from the state court building.
“Nobody can make you believe in God. The government can’t teach you that, but you have to acknowledge the God this country is founded on,” Moore said.
Members of the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations expressed concern about the legislation.
“Is this to highlight universal principles that everyone should embrace? Or is it intended to send a message to Muslim students and others that, ‘Your religion is not welcome here. Only one understanding of one religion is welcome here?'” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s deputy national director.
Mitchell said Muslims respect the Ten Commandments, which are greatly reinforced by similar passages in the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, but that context matters, including the use of translations of the Ten Commandments associated with evangelicals and other Protestants.
Previous Ten Commandments Controversies
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the Church and State Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress “shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” The Court found that the law served no secular purpose, but rather a clearly religious one.
In more recent cases regarding the display of the Ten Commandments, the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that such displays in two Kentucky courthouses were unconstitutional. At the same time, the Supreme Court upheld a Ten Commandments sign on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. These were 5-4 decisions, but the composition of the Supreme Court has changed and it now has a 6-3 conservative majority.
The key difference between the two cases, according to Justice Stephen Breyer, who was at the time the lone swing vote, is that the Kentucky county officials had a clear track record of religious motives for their postings, while the motivations behind the Texas postings were closer to the “borderline” between religious and secular. Moreover, Justice Breyer said, the Texas monument had stood the test of time and had stood alongside other monuments for decades without legal challenge.
Other religions and government battles
Moore was fired from his position as Alabama Supreme Court chief justice in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument, then re-elected to the position, but was suspended in 2016 after the Judicial Disciplinary Commission ruled that he had encouraged probate judges to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Moore disputed the charges.
Louisiana has played a key role in legal battles between church and state. In 1987, the Supreme Court struck down a 1981 Louisiana law that required the teaching of evolution to be accompanied by teaching of “creation science.” The Court found that the law had no explicit secular purpose and that “it is clear that the Louisiana Legislature’s primary purpose is to advance the religious view that a supernatural being created human beings.”
Mississippi has required “In God We Trust” signs in schools since 2001. Louisiana passed a similar mandate, which became law last year.
The latest push to post the Ten Commandments comes in the wake of a major victory for the Religious Right in 2022, when the Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state high school football coach was constitutionally protected after kneeling and praying on the field after a game.
The Ten Commandments Perspective
Jews and Christians believe the Ten Commandments were given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, according to the biblical account. Not all Christian traditions use the same Ten Commandments; the order varies depending on which Bible translation is used, and the wording varies. The Ten Commandments in the Louisiana signed law are listed in an order common to some Protestant and Orthodox traditions.
James Hudnut Buemmler, a professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said the debate over the law is likely to be not just about whether the commandments should be required to be posted on classroom walls in schools, but also about which versions should be posted.
“The Ten Commandments have always seemed universal, but when you try to post an abbreviated list on a wall, you find that they are open to debate.”
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Klein reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Stephen Smith in New Orleans, Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, Mark Sherman in Washington, Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi and Peter Smith in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
