The far-right Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, has told parents who don’t want the Ten Commandments hung in up classrooms across the state – as now required by law there – to tell their children to “not look at them”.
The Republican’s remarks came at a news conference on Monday defending the mandate, about two months after Louisiana became the first state in the country to order the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms.
The law signed by Landry states that the text must be shown in “large, easily readable font”, in a frame that is at least 11in by 14in, and displayed in all public school classrooms from kindergarten to those in state-funded universities by 1 January 2025.
The law does not require school systems to spend public funds on the posters – but rather, it allows the systems to accept donated posters or money for the display, according to the Associated Press.
Shortly after the order was signed, several Louisiana families, backed by civil rights groups, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the order. The families, who are made up of a coalition of Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious parents, argued that the law is unconstitutional. They contend that the law violates US supreme court precedent as well as both the constitutional protection to freely exercise one’s religion and the prohibition against establishing a state religion.
At Monday’s news conference, Landry joined Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, and said: “I did not know that the Ten Commandments was such a bad way for someone to live their life.
“Really and truly, I don’t see what the whole big fuss is about.”
Murrill announced that her office was filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit challenging the law on the basis that it was premature, given that – to her knowledge – no schools had started displaying the Ten Commandments in the manner being required. The parents, therefore, cannot prove any harm, according to Murrill.
In July, the state agreed not to take “public-facing compliance measures” until 15 November to provide time for briefs, arguments and a ruling in connection with the constitutional challenge, according to the Associated Press.
Murrill also said that there were “numerous ways” that the Ten Commandments law could be applied constitutionally – and offered examples of posters that could be created for classroom displays. Some of the posters featured quotes from famous historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr, the late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the biblical figure Moses and others who referenced the Ten Commandments.
Our Ten Commandments brief explains that an H.B. 71 poster describing Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ten Commandments of Non-Violence, alongside Moses’s own Ten Commandments, is plainly constitutional. #lalege pic.twitter.com/6UMuKDOEoN
— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) August 5, 2024
The back-and-forth in Louisiana comes as a similar directive was enacted in Oklahoma in late June by the state’s Republican education superintendent.
Public schools in Oklahoma have been ordered to immediately incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curriculums. But many educators are pushing back, arguing that it violates the constitution and that it is crucial that schools remain neutral and objective.
A parent has also filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma order, contending that the directive is unconstitutional.