Lousiana Is First State to Mandate ’10 Commandments’ In Classrooms

This week, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill requiring every public school classroom to display the “Ten Commandments.” Louisiana is the first state to pass such a law but similar bills have been proposed in Utah, Oklahoma, Texas and other states.

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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill on Wednesday requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments.

“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses who got the commandments from G-d,” Landry said. He also told reporters that he “can’t wait to be sued over it.”

Louisiana is the first state to pass such a law but similar bills have been proposed in Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, and other states.

The Louisiana bill mandates a poster-size display in classrooms from kindergarten to university with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”

The law describes the goal of the law as not religious but that the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.” Additionally, the posters will be funded through donations rather than state funds.

State Representative Michael Bayham told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the new law is related to historical law.

“Our sense of right and wrong is based on the Ten Commandments,” he said. “The Ten Commandments is as much about civilization and right and wrong; it does not say you have to be this particular faith or that particular faith.”

The Louisiana chapter of the  American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation responded to the bill in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon by saying that it “violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional.”

“Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition. The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate.”