By Charles J. Russo
Louisiana is not a stranger to controversy over religion in schools. In 2023, it joined almost 20 states that require or allow officials in public schools to post the national motto, “In God We Trust.”
Now, the Bayou State could become the first in the nation to require the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms in public schools, colleges and universities.
Lawmakers approved House Bill 71 on May 28, 2024, though Gov. Jeff Landry has not yet signed it into law. The bill would require officials in public schools, including colleges and universities, to post a specific version of the Ten Commandments. The text is similar to the King James translation of the Bible used in many Protestant churches.
Officials must post a context statement highlighting the role of the Ten Commandments in American history and may also display the Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a federal enactment to settle the frontier – and the earliest congressional document encouraging the creation of schools.
One of the bill’s supporters, state Sen. J. Adam Bass, defended it on the grounds that its “purpose is not solely religious.” He told fellow lawmakers that the Ten Commandments are important because of their “historical significance, which is simply one of many documents that display the history of our country and foundation of our legal system.”
As someone who teaches and researches law around religion and education, I believe the bill is problematic. It is likely to invite litigation at a time when the Supreme Court’s thinking on religion and state is shifting.
How SCOTUS has ruled before
Litigation over the Ten Commandments is not new. More than 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court rejected a Kentucky statute that mandated displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The court reasoned that the underlying law violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” – because the mandate lacked a secular purpose.
The justices were not persuaded by a small notation on posters that described the Ten Commandments as the “fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States.”
Twenty-five years later, the Supreme Court again took up cases challenging public displays of the Ten Commandments, although not in schools. This time, the justices reached mixed results.
The first arose in Kentucky, where officials had erected a county courthouse display about texts including the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and a biblical citation. In a 2005 ruling in McCreary County, Kentucky v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the five-person majority agreed that display of the Ten Commandments violated the establishment clause, largely because it lacked a secular legislative purpose.
On the same day, however, the Supreme Court reached the opposite result in Van Orden v. Perry, a case from Texas. The court upheld the constitutionality of a display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol as one of 17 monuments and 21 historical markers commemorating Texas’ history.
Unlike the fairly new display in Kentucky, the one in Texas, which had existed since the early 1960s, was erected using private funds. The court permitted the Ten Commandments to remain because, despite their religious significance, the monument was a more passive display than in Stone: spread out across 22 acres, rather than posted on the courthouse door.
AP Photo/Harry Cabluck
Louisiana’s law
Louisiana’s bill would require public school officials to display framed copies of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. Posters must be at least 11-by-14 inches and be printed with a large, easily readable font. The proposal allows, but does not require, officials to use state funds to purchase these posters. Displays can also be received as donations or purchased with gifted funds.
The bill’s author, state Rep. Dodie Horton, previously sponsored Louisiana’s law mandating that “In God We Trust” be posted in public school classrooms.
In defending the Ten Commandments proposal, she said it honors the country’s religious origins.
“The Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana,” she told fellow lawmakers, “and given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it’s imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position.”
Justifying the bill, Horton pointed to Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 Supreme Court decision. Here, the justices held that educational officials could not prevent a football coach from praying on the field at the end of games, because he engaged in personal religious observance protected by the First Amendment.
“The landscape has changed,” she said.
New frontier
Indeed it has.
For decades, the Supreme Court used a set of criteria often called the Lemon v. Kurtzman test to assess whether a government action violated the establishment clause. Under this test, when a government action or policy intersects with religion, it had to meet three criteria. A policy had to have a secular legislative purpose; its principal or primary effect could not advance religion; and it could not result in excessive entanglement between state and religious officials.
Another test the Supreme Court sometimes applied, stemming from Lynch v. Donnelly in 1984, invalidated governmental actions appearing to endorse religion.
The majority of the current court, though, abandoned both the Lemon and endorsement tests. In the majority opinion in Kennedy v. Bremerton, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’” He added that the court “long ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot.”
What that new standard means remains to be seen.
In my view, the bill’s supporters’ reliance on Kennedy is mistaken. That decision upheld voluntary, private prayer, not mandated postings of religious statements, overlooking many students’ beliefs.
More than 80 years ago, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette the Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 opinion that students cannot be compelled to participate in saluting the American flag, including the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, if doing so goes against their religious beliefs.
Under Louisiana’s new bill, students need not recite the Ten Commandments. Yet, given their distinctly religious message, I believe House Bill 71 faces a dubious future if signed into law.
Charles J. Russo is Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law at the University of Dayton.
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Atwp says
Put the Ten Commandments on display. We need to see The Word of GOD, everywhere we go. That will mean more work for the school officials, they have enough work, a little work to display Gods Word is o.k., my opinion.
Deborah Coffey says
Enter the fake “Christian” Nationalists. Will they be posting just how many of those ten commandments their idol, Trump, has broken over and over again? So much for separation of church and state not to mention that this is the epitome of hypocrisy as Republicans in Louisiana are preparing to steal another election, they have claimed a false god in Donald Trump, they are killing women with their ridiculous anti-abortion policies, and they covet power and money and the desire to “own” an entire country.
Edith Campins says
What these fake Christian seem to forget is that this nation was started by refugees fleeing religious persecution.
Laurel says
Well, actually, let’s start with Native Americans…
As a non-Christian, I’ve always thought that it was a tad strange that people like to wear a cross. I know it depicts Jesus died for our sins, but it’s still the damn thing that killed him! That, you want to wear? Still, my husband, a Christian, tells me that people should teach by example. I agree. It should not be legislated. I find it very, very hard to believe that is what Jesus would want. Legislation looks more like a power trip. A means of controlling people.
KZ Zimmerman says
That law should definitely be challenged. It is unfair to anyone who is not a Christian. I believe it is fine to make that information available to students who are interested. It is truly not okay to shove it down people’s throats. Go Louisiana, Stay in the 1950’s.
You are so right, Edith. Ms Dodie Horton needs to review her US history.
Michael J Cocchiola says
This is a direct assault on the U.S. Constitution and an affront to non-Christians.
We can only hope that a legal challenge will be forthcoming.
Skibum says
Personally, I am not opposed to any of the 10 Commandments, as they are important to me and should be a guide for how people should treat each other. But I continue to refuse to adopt this insidious, right-wing conservative Christian nationalist view that wants to mesh religion with schools, with local/state/federal government, and with every aspect of each of our lives as if to say there is only one true, sanctioned religion in America. People have the freedom to choose their own religious following, or no religious beliefs at all if they so choose. Forcing any form of religion outside of churches and into every aspect of society is wrong, and is also offensive to many people. How would these so-called “Christians” feel if every local, state and federal government mandated that each church must have certain laws posted for all to read? There is no doubt they would rally against government intrusion into religion, but seem to have no inclination at all to keep religion out of schools and government, and only one particular view of religion at that, with all others not included of course, because all other religious views are “cults”. This is the sorry state of how Christian nationalists view religion in America today.
Laurel says
Skibum: They got pissed off over wearing a mask during a pandemic! But legislating conformity is fine.
I think that there are large groups of people who feel better about themselves if everyone conforms to their idea (what they were taught) of what’s right. That’s actually very smug! But that can be detrimental.
Any sort of belief system can make it easier to manipulate the people involved. When there are differing factors, such as different religions, loves, skin colors, ideals, and so on, the masses are harder to control. Exactly what makes America, America! Project 2025 is dedicated to changing that, and reducing the masses into one religion and taught only their idealism. One massive cult in the making, a useful fool to lead them, and power for the power hungry.
Dennis C Rathsam says
If people obeyed the 10 commandments, this would be a better world!
James says
True.
And just think… if folks would carry around those tablets everywhere they go, just how physically fit they would be!
Either they just don’t make tablets like they use too, or Moses had the physique of Charles Atlas.
Just an observation.
James says
Now that I think about it, why stop at just displaying them in the front of schools and missing out on a golden opportunity to improve the physical and spiritual well being of our students simultaneously.
Bring em into the gymnasium.
When a child misbehaves the coach can tell em to “drop and give me five” (with just one of the tablets on his/her back)… if they were real bad… “drop and give me ten!”
But why stop there?
Perhaps the football team can work them into their practice routine. They can get into a circle and throw them to each other like medicine balls… and imagine how quickly the eye-hand coordination improves!
Perhaps the cheerleader squad can work them into their routine. Imagine how astonished the audience will be when they balance them at the top of a pyramid configuration.
Perhaps they can even order individual tablets of one, two, three, etc… commandments on them in “graduated weights” that the weight lifting team could use.
Talk about “sweating to the oldies.”
It might be the start of something big… not Olympic big, but bigger… like a biblical themed surviver island contest!
Just say’n.
Laurel says
Maybe so, Dennis, but people don’t, and our political leaders are often the biggest offenders.
Thurston Howell III says
It is about time we put The Bible and The WORD OF GOD back into our schools for our children! Removing God from School caused all the vulgar, bad behavior that we see today from Students. We are slowly watching the breakdown of America’s children and it is so very sad! Put God back into schools! Those who chose to not believe the Bible can just overlook the Commandments as we overlook a lot of the Left’s belief system. {Or lack of it rather}
James says
Perhaps you’re right.
Now, how should the ten commandments be represented?
In ancient Hebrew or ancient Greek?
Any secular school that has the ten commandments written in ancient Hebrew or Greek… where the children can actually READ ancient Hebrew or Greek… or BOTH… is indeed a school worth attending.
Or perhaps Latin?
Just something to consider.