Following the passing of a new law, Louisiana has become the first state in the country where the Ten Commandments must be displayed in classrooms at public schools and colleges.
As reported by ABC News, Governor Jeff Landry (R-La.) signed H.B. 71 into law on Wednesday, declaring that public school classrooms from kindergarten up to college must feature a poster depicting the Ten Commandments by the start of 2025.
The bill, passed by the Republican-controlled legislature on May 28th, was one of several bills that Governor Landry signed on Wednesday, all of which had the same focus of trying to “expand faith in public schools.” Other laws signed alongside H.B. 71 include a law that would authorize schools to hire chaplains, as well as forbidding teachers from discussing sexuality or transgenderism, or from using a so-called “transgender” students’ “preferred pronouns.”
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses,” said Landry at the news conference where the signing took place.
Far-left groups have already vowed to take legal action against the new law, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), claiming that it is a violation of the separation of church and state. The authors of the law have defended it on the basis of the fact that it is not strictly religious, but also has historical significance.
The text of the law describes the Ten Commandments as “foundational documents of our state and national government.” It goes on to note how “history records that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America, stated that ‘(w)e have staked the whole future of our new nation…upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.’”
As per the new law, the displays of the Commandments will be paid for by private donations rather than taxpayer dollars, and will be “displayed on a poster or framed document.” It will feature large font that will be easy for students to read. In addition, the Commandments themselves will be displayed alongside a “context statement” of about four paragraphs, explaining how the Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
But the ACLU issued a statement denouncing the law as dangerous and unconstitutional, falsely accusing the law of “unconstitutional religious coercion of students, who are legally required to attend school and are thus a captive audience for school-sponsored religious messages.”
“They will also send a chilling message to students and families who do not follow the state’s preferred version of the Ten Commandments that they do not belong, and are not welcome, in our public schools,” the ACLU statement continued.
They should include the BILL OFF RIGHTS in every school in America.
And maybe a law library