House Bill 71, also known as the Ten Commandments Bill, was signed into law by Governor Jeff Landry on June 19.
This new law, Act 676, will require a print of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public classrooms from elementary to college level by the beginning of 2025. The law also allows but doesn’t require classrooms to display other historical documents such as the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance.
The most controversial of these documents is the Ten Commandments, which according to the law must be displayed in a “large, easily readable font” on a poster or framed document of at least 11 inches by 14 inches in size. The commandments must be displayed with an accompanying three paragraph context statement explaining their significance to American history.
The act justifies having the Ten Commandments in schools, saying that the commandments are “our nation’s history and faithfully reflects the understanding of the founders of our nation with respect to the necessity of civic morality to a functional self-government.”
The law continued by stating, “Including the Ten Commandments in the education of our children is part of our state and national history, culture, and tradition.”
Sophia Beth Barber, a rising senior at Baton Rouge High School, was shocked about the new law.
“I couldn’t believe it actually got passed,” she said.
Barber said the law conflicts with her belief that Church and state should be separate entities and shouldn’t have been passed.
“I feel like it’s going to create a lot of problems due to the fact that not everyone in public schools is Catholic, and I feel like this is violating their right to religion,” Barber said.
The act cites the Supreme Court case of Van Orden v. Perry. A case where Thomas Van Orden sued Texas for having a monument to the Ten Commandments at the state capitol building. Orden argued the monument violated the people’s First Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court decided in favor of Texas, saying, “Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the Establishment Clause.”
LSU mechanical engineering sophomore Felix Anderson feels uneasy about the law’s passing.
“It’s a dangerous precedent to start requiring religious material in schools” he said. “It’s a bad precedent to set, especially in a state like Louisiana, where Christian nationalism is on the rise.”
Anderson said the timing wasn’t an accident, pointing out that House Bill 608 makes gendered spaces restricted to reproductive sex organs and House Bill 121 prohibits school employees from addressing students by their chosen names and pronouns.
Anderson said the bill reflects the disordered priorities of the current legislature.
“How typical, that instead of addressing our ranking in education, or the fact that 30% of our high school graduates are functionally illiterate, we put up a sign in each classroom they will not be able to read,” he said.
Anderson continued, saying the law is a “waste of resources and an attempt to normalize religious indoctrination.” Ultimately, he concluded that House Bill 71 “will lead to worse and more blatant religious propaganda in the future.”
The law’s controversial nature has also led some families to take legal action.
On June 24, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced, “A multi-faith group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools filed suit in federal court today.”
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This group of Louisiana residents is working with the ACLU to stop House Bill 71 from being implemented.
Heather Weaver, an attorney working with the ACLU, said the organization has been following the bill since it was introduced in the House.
The ACLU referenced Stone v. Graham, a 1980 case that greatly resembles what is happening now. In 1980, a group of parents in Kentucky sued the state for requiring the Ten Commandments to be placed in every classroom.
The Supreme Court decided in favor of the families, calling the commandments “plainly religious in nature.” The court emphasized the first and fourth commandments, which call for worshiping God and honoring the Sabbath day, as the most unsuitable for public schools.
The complaint filed by the ACLU this week claimed that the bill “unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture.”
With the complaint, the ACLU also filed for a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent the law from being put into action, claiming two counts of violations of the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.
