Louisiana has become the first state to
enact a law mandating that the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed at all
public schools and colleges.
Under legislation that became law on June 18, Louisiana schools that receive state funds will have to display the Ten Commandments “in each building it uses and classroom in each school under its jurisdiction.” The bill specifies that the text must be presented at the main focal point of a poster or framed document measuring at least 11 inches by 14 inches and printed in a “large and easily readable font.” It also requires a 200-word “context statement” explaining that the Ten Commandments were “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
According to the context statement, the Ten Commandments had been included in some of the most popular textbooks in U.S. history published by prominent public education pioneers such as William McGuffey and Noah Webster. For example, Webster’s “The American Spelling Book” contained the Ten Commandments and sold more than 100 million copies for use by public school children all across the nation. It was still available for use in U.S. public schools as recently as 1975.
The Republican-backed measure was approved by the state Senate on a 30–8 margin on May 16. It reached Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk after receiving a final House approval in a 79–16 vote on May 28. The measure was spearheaded by Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton. Last year, she successfully led a legislative effort to require the national motto “In God We Trust” to be displayed in classrooms across the state. While more than a dozen states have enacted laws mandating or explicitly allowing schools to display the phrase, the Louisiana law goes one step further to require signage in each individual classroom.
In 1980, a divided U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) struck down a Kentucky law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, holding that the law signaled the government endorsement of “a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths,” in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments,” the SCOTUS’s 5–4 majority wrote at the time. “However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”
In recent years, the SCOTUS appears to have become more open to a less restrictive interpretation of the establishment clause, while placing greater emphasis on the country’s history and tradition.
In defense of her Ten Commandments measure, Rep. Horton highlighted the text’s historical significance, arguing that the bill honors its unique place in Louisiana’s history. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government. The Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana,” she said on the House floor in April. “And given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it’s imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position. It doesn’t preach a certain religion, but it definitely shows what a moral code that we all should live by is,” she said.
Last year, the Texas Senate approved a similar bill, however, the measure died after the House failed to vote on it before a deadline passed.
A Utah bill, meanwhile, would have required all of the state’s public schools to “display a poster or framed copy” of the Ten Commandments in a “prominent location” in every one of their buildings. The bill has since been changed to allow biblical principles to be taught as part of school curricula.
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