When Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed a bill requiring public schools in his state to post the Ten Commandments, he knew he’d have some fights on his hands.
And the Republican governor was right.
“We’re suing Louisiana for requiring all public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced Wednesday, Mediaite reported. “Public schools are not Sunday schools.”
Landry signed the bill into law earlier that day and said, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law giver, which was Moses.”
Landry also received pushback from Lucien Greaves, the co-founder of the Satanic Temple.
Greaves said it was a “completely unnecessary, unconstitutional bill devoid of any credible state interest.”
Those two groups were not the only ones to criticize Landry.
The debate also spilled into a war on X, formerly Twitter with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
“Louisiana has the worst crime rate in the nation – but this is their priority,” Newsom wrote.
Landry countered with, “Unlike Gavin’s liberal hug-a-thug policies, we held a crime special session in just my first two months in office. And, maybe Gavin is unaware that the Lord says thou shall not kill, steal, or rape! By the way, the only reason California is not the worst is they quit reporting.”
Landry said at an event on Saturday, “I’m going home to sign a bill that places the Ten Commandments in public classrooms. And I can’t wait to be sued.”
The law requires all public classrooms — from kindergarten through college — to have a poster of the Commandments beginning in 2025, per ABC News.
While those groups against the measure claim this move violates the meaning of separation of church and state in public buildings, those who wrote it claim otherwise.
The bill’s authors state that it is not only religious in nature, but also historically significant.
According to the bill, the Ten Commandments are the “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
“History records that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America, stated that “(w)e have staked the whole future of our new nation … upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments,” the new law reads.
The displays will be paid by private donations and not state funds.
The posters will be “displayed on a poster or framed document,” according to the law. The text also needs to printed in large, easily read font.
