The signature from Governor Jeff Landry now makes it official: a new law requires ever public school classroom in Louisiana, from kindergarten to college, to post the Ten Commandments. Landry signed the legislation, Louisiana House Bill 71, on Wednesday, attracting international attention in the process.
Louisiana becomes the first state in the country to require such a posting of the commandments. The legislation requires “a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches,” no later than January 1, 2025. Just days prior to signing the bill, Governor Landry told a crowd attending a GOP fundraiser in Tennessee, “I can’t wait to be sued.”
ACLU Louisiana Executive Director Alanah Odoms says they are filing a lawsuit because the legislation violates the separation of church and state clause in the U-S Constitution. “Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers, actually declared that there is a line that cannot be crossed…the separation of church and state. And this piece of legislation flies in the face of that.”
But Louisiana Family Forum President Gene Mills believes the law will withstand a legal challenge because the Ten Commandments provide a foundation for modern-day law in America and says the state’s attorney general is prepared. “And Liz Murrell and her solicitor general are hands on and understand what’s at stake. I think that’s the reason the governor said, ‘I can’t wait’ for the challenge.”
HB71 Spells out the required text:
"The Ten Commandments.
I AM the LORD thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
