Louisiana becomes first state to require that Ten Commandments be displayed in public classrooms

Louisiana became the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms, under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.

The one prepared by the GOP legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for government action – to sign or veto the bill – has expired.

Opponents question the constitutionality of the law, warning that legal proceedings are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not just religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are described as “fundamental documents of our state and national government.”

In April, State Senator Royce Duplessis said CBS affiliate WWL-TV that he opposed the legislation. “It’s a process waiting to happen,” he said. “I think we’ll probably lose in court.”

Duplessis told the station it’s only a matter of time before someone sues the state.

“This is why we have a separation of church and state,” said Duplessis, who is a Democrat. “We learned the 10 Commandments when we went to Sunday school. As I said on the Senate floor, if you want your children to learn the Ten Commandments, you can take them to church.”

The displays, which will be accompanied by a four-paragraph “contextual statement” that describes how the Ten Commandments “have been a prominent part of American public education for nearly three centuries,” are expected to be installed in classrooms by early 2025.

The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, according to the legislation. The law also “authorizes” but does not require the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance in public elementary and secondary schools.

State Representative Dodie Horton is the author of the bill. In April, she defended this before the House, saying the Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana, WWL-TV reported.

“I hope and pray that Louisiana will be the first state to allow the moral code to be placed back in classrooms,” Horton said. “Ever since I was in kindergarten [at a private school], was always on the wall. I learned that there is a God and I knew I had to honor him and his laws.

Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to 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 other than Louisiana has been successful 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 U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, which says Congress may “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court concluded that the law did not have a secular purpose but served a clearly religious purpose.

Louisiana’s controversial law, in a Bible Belt state, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in the state under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic governor John Bel Edwards in January.

The Republican Party also has a two-thirds majority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every elected office statewide, paving the way for lawmakers to advance a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month.