Civil Liberties Groups to Sue Louisiana Over Ten Commandments Mandate

BATON ROUGE, La. — Just hours after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed a bill into law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms, civil libertarians offered their unequivocal response — we’ll see you in court.

With Landry’s signature, Louisiana became the first state in the union to impose such a requirement. 

Texas’ Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick subsequently vowed to get a Ten Commandments display bill passed in his state, where legislation much like the Louisiana bill passed the state Senate last year before languishing in the House.

The passage and signing of the bill also marked the culmination of a conservative swing in the state government since former Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, left office in January after two terms.

With Landry’s ascent to the governor’s office, Republicans hold a supermajority in the state Legislature and every statewide elected position.

The bill Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments, spelled out in a “large, easily readable font” in all public classrooms from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

It was one of 18 bills he signed that he said would “bring drastic reform to our education system and bring common sense back to our classrooms.”

The framed posters will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” explaining how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” 

Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate, which is set to go into effect with the start of the 2025-2026 school year. Instead, the posters will be paid for through private donations.

But that was little comfort to civil libertarians, like the American Civil Liberties Union,  the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, who said the new state edict would, among other things, keep children who have different beliefs from feeling safe at school.

“Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition. The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate,” the groups said in a joint statement.

They went on to say a lawsuit is unavoidable because the law is “blatantly unconstitutional” promotion of “religious doctrine” that “violates the separation of church and state.”

According to a recent Pew Research Center study, roughly 84% of adults living in Louisiana identify as Christian, and of those, 27% said they consider themselves to be Evangelical Protestant. 

Less than 1% were Jewish, and less than 1% were Muslim. About 13% of the adults in Louisiana were unaffiliated, meaning they identified with being atheist, agnostic, or having no particular religion. 

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