The American Civil Liberties Union immediately protested the move and threatened to sue, claiming it violated the principle of separation of church and state.
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — The Associated Press and NOLA.com contributed to this report.
Tens of thousands of Ten Commandments posters will be plastered in every public classroom in Louisiana, from kindergarten through college, after Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
The bill was signed into law by Governor Landry, and the law itself stipulates that the exhibits must be installed by the beginning of 2025.
The move was immediately challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, which quickly threatened to sue for violating the principle of separation of church and state.
The group said HB 71 “is an unconstitutional religious coercion against students, who are legally required to attend school and are therefore prisoners of school-sponsored religious messaging.”
The bill requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in poster-sized, “large, easily readable font,” and is part of a series of bills that Governor Landry has supported and signed to reform the way education is delivered in the state.
According to NOLA.com, Governor Landry touted the first-of-its-kind bill at a Republican fundraiser in Tennessee last weekend, calling it a victory in the “culture wars” and bragging that he “can’t wait to get sued.”
HB 71 would also allow, but not require, other historical documents to be in classrooms.
Legal battles over displaying 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 Church and State Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress “shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” The Court found that the law served no secular purpose, but rather a clearly religious one.
The case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority.
