Louisiana Is The First State to Authorize a Poster of The Ten Commandments in All Classrooms - And A Slew of "Civil Liberties" Associations Promptly Sue to Remove It
Plaintiffs Suing: American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and NYC's Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett
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Required by Law: The Ten Commandments
This article was posted on January 20, 2024. Emphases are mine.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from a GOP-dominated Legislature pushing a conservative agenda under a new governor.
The legislation that Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.
“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 God, Landry said.
Opponents questioned the law’s constitutionality and vowed to challenge it in court. Proponents said the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
The posters, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.
Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters would be paid for through donations.
The law also “authorizes” but does not require the display of other items in K-12 public schools, including: The Mayflower Compact, which was signed by religious pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and is often referred to as America’s “First Constitution"; the Declaration of Independence; and the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory — in the present day Midwest — and created a pathway for admitting new states to the Union.
Not long after the governor signed the bill into law at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette on Wednesday, civil rights groups and organizations that want to keep religion out of government promised to file a lawsuit challenging it.
The law prevents students from getting an equal education and will keep children who have different beliefs from feeling safe at school, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon.
“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,” the groups said.
The controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in Louisiana under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in January. The GOP holds a supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda.
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has succeeded in making the bills law.
Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday to block Louisiana’s new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, a measure they contend is unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs in the suit include parents of Louisiana public school children with various religious backgrounds, who are represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the New York City law firm Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett.
“This display sends a message to my children and other students that people of some religious dominations are superior to others,” said the Rev. Jeff Simms, a Presbyterian pastor who is a plaintiff in the suit and father of three children in Louisiana public schools.
“This is religious favoritism.”
Under the legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry last week, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to display a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” next year.
I think this is wrong, as it is not “required” or “mandated”.
Opponents argue that the law is a violation of separation of church and state and that the display will isolate students, especially those who are not Christian. Proponents say the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
Plaintiff Joshua Herlands has two young children in New Orleans public schools who, like their father, are Jewish. There are multiple versions of the Ten Commandments, and Herlands said the specific version mandated for classroom walls does not align with the version from his faith. He worries the display will send a troubling message to his kids and others that “they may be lesser in the eyes of the government.”
“Politicians have absolutely no business forcing their religious beliefs on my kids or any kids, or attempting to indoctrinate them with what they think is the right version of a particular piece of religious text,” Herlands said.
The lawsuit filed Monday seeks a court declaration that the new law, referred to in the lawsuit as HB 71, violates First Amendment clauses forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty. It also seeks an order prohibiting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
“The state’s main interest in passing H.B. 71 was to impose religious beliefs on public-school children, regardless of the harm to students and families,” the lawsuit says. “The law’s primary sponsor and author, Representative Dodie Horton, proclaimed during debate over the bill that it ‘seeks to have a display of God’s law in the classroom for children to see what He says is right and what He says is wrong.’”
Defendants include state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley,members of the state education board and some local school boards.
Landry and Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill support the new law, and Murrill has said she is looking forward to defending it. She issued a statement saying she couldn’t comment directly on the lawsuit because she had not yet seen it.
“It seems the ACLU only selectively cares about the First Amendment — it doesn’t care when the Biden administration censors speech or arrests pro-life protesters, but apparently it will fight to prevent posters that discuss our own legal history,” Murrill said in the emailed statement.
The Ten Commandments have long been at the center of lawsuits across the nation.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
In a more recent ruling, the Supreme Court held in 2005 that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin. Those were 5-4 decisions, but the court’s makeup has changed, with a 6-3 conservative majority now.
Although some people think this case may rise to the level of the U.S. Supreme Court and test the conservative members, lawyers for the plaintiffs say that they think this is a clear-cut case.
“We think this is already covered by clear Supreme Court precedent,” said Patrick Elliott, the legal director for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “We think under current law that we will prevail and it would not be necessary for the Supreme Court to review it.”
Other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah, have attempted to pass requirements that the schools display the Ten Commandments. However, with threats of legal battles, none has the mandate in place except for Louisiana.
The posters in Louisiana, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.
The controversial law comes during a new era of conservative leadership in Louisiana under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in January. The GOP holds a supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda.
The case was allotted to U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, nominated to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama.
WHAT I REALLY THINK
Just months before Presidential elections, the Ten Commandments make a comeback in Louisiana schools. We don’t know which candidates will profess their faith.
I grew up with The 10 Commandments, and remember memorizing them in second grade Catholic School. I am not Catholic any longer, but the Ten Commandments are not unique to any one religion. They are shared by many.
Britannica says,
The Ten Commandments are a list of religious precepts that, according to passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy, were divinely revealed to Moses by Yahweh and engraved on two stone tablets. They are also called the Decalogue.
The Ten Commandments establish rules of worship and forbid actions such as murder, theft, and adultery. They reflect a morality common to the ancient Middle East.
The year the Ten Commandments were written is unknown. Scholars have proposed a wide range of dates on the basis of different interpretations of the commandments’ origin, from between the 16th and 13th centuries BCE to after 750 BCE. Those interpretations include regarding the commandments as precepts given to Moses, as a prophetic text, or as a summary of legal and priestly tradition.
Ten Commandments, list of religious precepts that, according to various passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy, were divinely revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai and were engraved on two tablets of stone. The Commandments are recorded virtually identically in Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21.
Text
The rendering in Exodus (New Revised Standard Version) appears as follows:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Numbering
Traditions differ in numbering the Ten Commandments. In Judaism the prologue (“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”) constitutes the first element and the prohibitions against false gods and idols the second. MedievalRoman tradition, accepted by Martin Luther, regards all these elements as one and preserves the number 10 by separating the prohibitions against coveting another’s wife and coveting another’s possessions. In the Greek Orthodox and ProtestantReformed traditions, the prologue and the prohibition against false gods are one commandment and the prohibition against idols is the second.
History and importance
Dating the Ten Commandments involves an interpretation of their purpose. Some scholars propose a date between the 16th and 13th centuries bce because Exodus and Deuteronomy connect the Ten Commandments with Moses and the Sinai Covenant between Yahweh and Israel. For those who regard the Ten Commandments as an epitome of prophetic teachings, the date would be sometime after Amos and Hosea (after 750 bce). If the Ten Commandments are simply a summary of the legal and priestly traditions of Israel, they belong to an even later period.
The Ten Commandments contain little that was new to the ancient world and reflect a morality common to the ancient Middle East. They are a description of the conditions accepted by the community of Israel in its relationship to Yahweh. The differences found in Exodus and Deuteronomy indicate that the process of transmission from generation to generation brought with it modifications.
The Ten Commandments had no particular importance in Christian tradition until the 13th century, when they were incorporated into a manual of instruction for those coming to confess their sins. With the rise of Protestant churches, new manuals of instruction in the faith were made available and the Ten Commandments were incorporated into catechisms as a fundamental part of religious training, especially of the young.
Families sue over Louisiana Ten Commandments classroom requirement
The families are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and nonreligious.
A multifaith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools is suing to challenge Louisiana's new law requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
HB 71 mandates public schools -- from kindergarten to the collegiate level -- to display the Ten Commandments, a religious set of rules from the Old Testament, in every classroom on “a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches.”
The suit, filed in federal court Monday, argues that the law violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent, pointing to the Stone v. Graham case in which the court overturned a similar state law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The nine families -- who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious -- also argue the law is religious coercion and violates their First Amendment rights. The parents represented include rabbis, pastors, and reverends.
“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom – rendering them unavoidable – unconstitutionally pressures studentsl
I have been expressing for some time now that as the evil gets bolder, we will find ourselves doing the same - but upping it a notch. The bolder they are, the more we need to shout! And the more sin that surrounds us, the more we need to rebuke it!
I believe that if every classroom displayed the Ten Commandments, we would be closer to God. Our youth would have more of a chance to get to know Him.
God didn’t tell us that we could worship another god part-time. NO! Be it not that way! God told us to NEVER worship another God. He is not interested in being politically correct.
Stay bold. Shine the light on the evil. Don’t be afraid. Attain the peace that surpassess all understanding. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR THOSE SCHEDULED FOR EUTHANASIA
As God answered our prayer this past Monday, our male patient had gone in to prepare for the Canadian “MAID” or “Medical Assistance In Dying” program in Canada. We prayed for his total healing from a large tumor that had invaded his heart.
Then as the morning of his euthanasia approached, we switched gears and prayed for him to pass away in his sleep. The next morning, within minutes after arrival, he had naturally passed away in his sleep.
Thank You, God! We Got Our Miracle! Let All the Angels Rejoice!
ACLU, or any other civil liberty group should be defunded and deported to the middle east. They represent all that is upside down in this world. And the families suing can leave too! You don't like it, leave. That will make schools more safe. Amazing how ignorant some people are, not understanding this country was founded on judeo christisn principles.
Bringing The DEMONS to LIGHT 🙏 Not one of those Corrupt Entities is Fighting to Stop the Bioweapon Death Jabs! Evil Versus Team Humanity…the lines are clearer every single day
ACLU, or any other civil liberty group should be defunded and deported to the middle east. They represent all that is upside down in this world. And the families suing can leave too! You don't like it, leave. That will make schools more safe. Amazing how ignorant some people are, not understanding this country was founded on judeo christisn principles.
Bringing The DEMONS to LIGHT 🙏 Not one of those Corrupt Entities is Fighting to Stop the Bioweapon Death Jabs! Evil Versus Team Humanity…the lines are clearer every single day