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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action — to sign or veto the bill — has lapsed.

Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

The displays, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.

The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation.

The law also “authorizes” — but does not require — the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.

Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has had success in making the bills law.

Legal battles over the display of 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 establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.

Louisiana’s controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in the state under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in January.

The GOP also has a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month.

  • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    9 days ago

    Damn it’s not even the good ten commandments

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    2. The use of only two tinctures, one metal and one color, is preferred, but a third tincture is permissible with good reasons; a fourth tincture is always forbidden.
    3. There shall be no color on or next to color, nor metal on or next to metal unless the line of contact is very short.
    4. The arms may not be charged with lettering or numerals, nor any other text.
    5. The charges must be as big as possible and fill the space intended for them as completely as possible.
    6. The charges should be drawn to emphasize their characteristics rather than their appearance in the natural world: the lion fierce, the eagle majestic, the deer graceful.
    7. The charges are to be two-dimensional; they must at least remain recognizable even when presented as silhouettes without shading or lines.
    8. The arms must be easy to remember, with only the essential symbolism, ideally only one charge.
    9. Repetition is forbidden: one idea should not be represented with multiple charges, and if one charge can represent multiple ideas, then that only strengthens the symbolism of that charge and indeed the arms as a whole.
    10. The blazon of a charge must not require the usage of a proper noun: charges are in other words a general representation of the common noun in the blazon, such that the arms may be drawn from the blazon without the need of a model.