CNN
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Louisiana public faculties are actually required to show the Ten Commandments in all lecture rooms, after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the requirement into legislation Wednesday.
House Bill 71, accepted by state lawmakers last month, mandates {that a} poster-size show of the Ten Commandments with “giant, simply readable font” be in each classroom at faculties that obtain state funding, from kindergarten by way of the college degree.
The laws specifies the precise language that should be printed on the classroom shows and descriptions that the textual content of the Ten Commandments should be the central focus of the poster or framed doc.
Earlier than signing the invoice, Landry referred to as it “considered one of (his) favorites.”
“If you wish to respect the rule of legislation, you gotta begin from the unique legislation given which was Moses. … He acquired his commandments from God,” Landry stated.
Opponents of the invoice have argued {that a} state requiring a non secular textual content in all lecture rooms would violate the institution clause of the US Structure, which says that Congress can “make no legislation respecting an institution of faith.”
Civil liberties teams swiftly vowed to problem the legislation – which makes Louisiana the primary within the nation to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in each classroom that receives state funding – in court docket.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, People United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Faith Basis stated that the legislation violates longstanding Supreme Courtroom precedent and the First Modification and would lead to “unconstitutional non secular coercion of scholars.”
“The First Modification guarantees that all of us get to resolve for ourselves what non secular beliefs, if any, to carry and apply, with out strain from the federal government. Politicians don’t have any enterprise imposing their most popular non secular doctrine on college students and households in public faculties,” the teams stated in a joint assertion.
Supporters of the legislation, in defending the measure, have leaned on the 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which gave a highschool soccer coach his job again after he was disciplined over an issue involving prayer on the sector. The Supreme Courtroom dominated that the coach’s prayers amounted to personal speech, protected by the First Modification, and couldn’t be restricted by the varsity district.
The choice lowered the bar between church and state in an opinion that authorized specialists predicted would enable extra non secular expression in public areas. On the time, the court docket clarified {that a} authorities entity doesn’t essentially violate the institution clause by allowing non secular expression in public.
Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, the Republican writer of the invoice, stated on the invoice signing that “it’s like hope is within the air all over the place.” Horton has dismissed considerations from Democratic opponents of the measure, saying the Ten Commandments are rooted in authorized historical past and her invoice would place a “ethical code” within the classroom.
This story has been up to date with extra particulars.