image credit: Jeff Landry
Republican Wednesday, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill.
Louisiana is the first state to mandate Ten Commandments posters in public schools through universities.
Governor Jeff Landry signed the Republican-backed legislation Wednesday, calling the commandments “the foundational documents of our state and national government.”
US civil rights groups will undoubtedly contest the bill, claiming it violates the Establishment Clause.
Adds: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
State laws require posters to include the holy text in “large, easily readable font” on an 11-by-14-inch (28cm by 35.5cm) canvas and make the commandments “the central focus.”
It will include a four-paragraph “context statement” detailing how the commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
All state-funded schools must display the posters by 2025, but the state needs to pay them.
Republicans in Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah submitted identical proposals.
Legal issues surround displaying the Ten Commandments in schools, courts, and police stations.
The US Supreme Court invalidated the Kentucky law requiring the document in elementary and high schools in 1980.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that publishing the Ten Commandments was “plainly religious in nature” and “had no secular legislative purpose”.
In addition to murder and theft, the court said the Ten Commandments included praising God and preserving the Sabbath.
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