Houston: Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a landmark bill on Wednesday, requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom across the conservative state. This move has reignited the ongoing debate over the separation of church and state.
The legislation, the first of its kind in the United States, mandates that the biblical text be prominently displayed in all public school classrooms, from kindergarten through state-funded universities, starting in 2025.
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original law given — which was Moses,” said Landry, a Republican, during the bill’s signing ceremony.
According to the bill, the Ten Commandments must be displayed as either a poster or a framed document, printed “in a large, easily readable font.”
In response to the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced plans to challenge the law in court. “The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the organization stated.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution prohibits the establishment of a national religion or the preference of one religion over another.
The bill, HB 71, is unprecedented in being signed into law, though similar proposals have been introduced in other southern states within the US “Bible Belt.”