This story was first reported by Louisiana Illuminator and republished with permission.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Monday she will ask a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit parents have brought to stop a new state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom.
Murrill is expected to file a brief arguing the lawsuit is premature, as schools are not yet displaying the religious text. She argues that means the plaintiffs cannot yet show they are harmed.
According to Article III of the U.S. Constitution, to bring a federal lawsuit, a plaintiff does not have to prove that they have been harmed if they can prove that harm is imminent.
The plaintiffs in the case, who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious, assert the new law will violate their First Amendment rights.
“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom – rendering them unavoidable – unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” their lawsuit reads.
The law, which the Legislature approved earlier this year and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law, requires a specific version of the Ten Commandments, one that’s popular among evangelical denominations, be posted prominently in every public K-12, college and university classroom.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Kentucky in 1980.
Along the way, Republicans have argued they want the scripture in classrooms not for religious reasons but because they believe American law is based on the Ten Commandments, referring to Moses as the “original lawmaker.”
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The Ten Commandments are religious directives in the Bible’s Old Testament from the book of Exodus. Scholars disagree about when the commandments were written and by whom. Various versions of the text appear in different translations of the Bible and the Torah.
The rules come from the story of the Hebrew prophet Moses, a key figure in the Abrahamic religions who was said to have been given them by God after he led the Israelites, a religious and ethnic minority, from enslavement under an oppressive Egyptian pharaoh.
When asked about the impacts of the law on members of religious minorities, Landry advised students not to look at the poster.
“I think we’ve forgotten in this country that democracy actually means majority rule,” Landry said.
Murrill revealed posters at Monday’s press conference that she believes comply with the new law and pass constitutional muster.
One such poster displayed the Ten Commandments and an image of actor Charles Heston portraying Moses in the movie “The Ten Commandments” alongside a picture of Broadway actor/writer Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton in the hit musical “Hamilton,” over lyrics from a song in the musical, “The Ten Duel Commandments.”
The song, which is sung right before Hamilton is shot and killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in the musical, gives advice for partaking in a flintlock pistol duel. The lyrics seem to violate one of the Biblical Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill.”
Others posters feature pictures and quotes from figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Others depict memes and other references to the Ten Commandments in law, government and culture.
Murrill noted her office is handling the litigation internally and is not paying an outside law firm to represent the state.
Both Murrill and Landry have expressed that the displays could improve discipline in schools.
Landry made headlines last month when he suggested that if the Ten Commandments were displayed in Thomas Crooks’ classroom, he may not have attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and seriously injuring two others. Secret Service agents returned fire, killing Crooks.
Louisiana schools, except for those in a handful of districts where the law is temporarily blocked, have until Jan. 1, 2025, to post the Ten Commandments displays.
One Comment
The posting of the 10 Commandments in public schools is not a religious statement?
Let’s look at them and see what they say. And, pardon me for taking out the ‘thou’ and other highfalutin language. I prefer the plain text.
First Five
1 I am your god, and you can’t have any other gods.
2. You can’t have idols or physical effigies of me or anybody else (got that Hindus, Eastern Orthodox with your icons, and Roman Catholics with your statues of Mother Mary and the Saints?)
4. You can’t say my name in a disrespectful fashion or as a curse (or I, your god, will be offended).
5. Don’t work on the ‘Sabbath’. (I, your god, took the day off and so should you).
The first five are both clearly religious and specific to the Abrahamic religions. You’re gaslighting me if you say the purpose in displaying them is only to teach history and the origins of our laws and constitution. By posting them in every public classroom and calling them a ‘historical document’ you're also saying that the founders of this country wanted us all to worship the god of Abraham. But if that were true, why is there is no mention of god in anywhere else in the US Constitution? And why does the First Amendment to the US Constitution say “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
I listened to Gov. Landry’s interviewed on Talk Louisiana last week (https://www.wrkf.org/show/talk-louisiana. July 30, 2024). Approximately 17 minutes into the interview he was asked about the case of children of parents who don't agree with the posting of the 10 commandments. His responses were: "..they don't have to look at it." and "..is it a bad way to live your life, 'thou shall not kill', 'thou shall not steal'?..”. The first part of his answer is disingenuous. If a law were passed that required the prominent placement of a pornographic picture in the front of every classroom (we'll call it 'sex education'), wouldn't that be considered promoting pornography? And if a parent objected to the pornography in the classroom, would Landry's response be tell the parents that their children “don’t have to look at it”? The second response requires you forget the nature of the first five commandments and focus on commandments 7 and 8. The implication is, 'after all, if they're good, shouldn't the rest of the 10 be okay as well?' It also implies that the 'non-religious' commandments have some unique historical and legal significance for America. So let's examine that.
Second Five:
6. Honor your parents
7. Don’t murder
8. Don’t steal.
9. Don’t commit perjury.
10. Don’t yearn for other people's stuff.
So commandments 6 through 9 are pretty much common to all civilized societies without regard to a particular faith tradition. If I had to guess, I’d say that the Egypt that Moses was leading the Israelites from had laws with respect to murder, stealing, and perjury; and they were probably similar to what could be found the Code of Hammurabi and other ancient legal codes, many of which proceeded the 10 commandments by thousands of years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi). They’re a basic requirement of civilization and law. The last commandment is just good advice and something the Stoics, Buddhist, and just about every philosophy that has focused on happiness, has advised.
So why not display the Code of Hammurabi instead? After all Hammurabi and his code are honored at the US capital and United Nations headquarters? Or better yet why not just put up a sign with commandments 7 through 10 without the numbers?
The ‘why’ behind this law comes from the same dark places of the American soul that built monuments to Confederate traitors throughout the South in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The monuments were erected to tell Black Americans that they were second class citizens, without the same rights and privileges of white Americans (C. Mader, July 15, 2012, “Update: Mouton statue comes down Saturday 11 AM”, The Current online: www.thecurrentla.com). This despite the plain text of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution The symbolism was not lost on Black Americans then; and the symbolism of requiring the placement of the 10 Commandments in all public school is not lost on us now.
So ‘why this law?’ For its backers, this is a first step towards establishing the primacy of their version of their Christianity and opening the door to the policy objectives of Christian Nationalism. It’s their way of telling non-Christians, and even Christians that don’t believe as they do, ‘If you don’t like it, suck it up; we’re in charge; and if you’re not one of us, you’re a second class citizen.’
Given the current jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), I don’t feel confident in saying this is unconstitutional. The conservative majority of SCOTUS has shown that they want to give primacy to conservative Christian views over others whenever they can. A few recent examples include the 2022 Dobbs, 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop, and 2014 Hobby Lobby decisions.
For those who say they are trying to return America to its religious routes, I suggest they look at the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli. It was negotiated under our first president, George Washington; ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1797; and singed into law by President John Adams, the second president of the United States. Article 11 of the Treaty states "... the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..." That section of the treaty could have been objected to either of our first two presidents or the U.S. Senate. But they read it and signed it.
Secularism is built into the foundation of the US Constitution and is our cherished and long standing tradition. The Louisiana 10 Commandments law is un-American.