A new Louisiana law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms has prompted a nationwide dialogue about the separation of church and state in education.
The law, signed last week by Governor Jeff Landry, established Louisiana as the first state to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Other states, including Oklahoma and Texas, have tried to pass similar legislation but failed.
The legislation requires every K-12 classroom and state-funded university to display a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments along with a four-paragraph "context statement" by the beginning of 2025.
State Representative Dodie Horton, who authored the bill, spoke in its defense on the Louisiana House floor in April, saying, "The Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana," and that it's crucial to reinstate their prominence.
Andrew Seidel, vice president of strategic communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), told VOA in a statement, "Not even 24 hours into the governor signing this law, the backlash has been across the board, negative and national. This broke through into the national conversation immediately."
Civil liberties groups, including AU and the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a joint lawsuit Monday, seeking a court ruling that declares the law violates First Amendment clauses protecting religious freedom. Additionally, the lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Liz Murrill, Louisiana's attorney general, released a statement defending the law.
"The 10 Commandments are pretty simple (don't kill, steal, cheat on your wife), but they also are important to our country's foundations. Moses, who you may recall, brought the 10 commandments down from Mount Sinai, appears eight times in carvings that ring the U.S. Supreme Court Great Hall ceiling. I look forward to defending the law."
Seidel said disputes regarding the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms aren't new.
In the 1980 Stone v. Graham case, the Supreme Court held that displays like this one were unconstitutional because they violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which separates church and state.
"That is what the separation of church and state is designed to do, to allow every family, every parent, every individual in the United States to choose their own religion without interference from the state, so long as they are not harming others," Seidel said.