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La.'s Ten Commandments law will test religion-friendly courts, experts say [View all]
La.’s Ten Commandments law will test religion-friendly courts, experts say
The state’s Republican governor signed a measure requiring taxpayer-financed schools to prominently post a specific version of the commandments by Jan. 1.
By Michelle Boorstein and Danielle Paquette
June 20, 2024 at 5:50 p.m. EDT
Then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) celebrates the Supreme Court decision allowing a Ten Commandments monument to stand outside the Texas Capitol on June 27, 2005, in Austin. (Jana Birchum/Getty Images)
Louisiana’s law requiring the Ten Commandments in every classroom will test the new legal climate created by the Supreme Court, which has tossed earlier standards that protected the separation of church and state, experts said Thursday.
The law signed by Gov. Jeff Landry (R) Wednesday is the first one of its kind in the country since 1980, when a more moderate Supreme Court ruled a similar Kentucky law unconstitutional. The new law gives schools until Jan. 1 to display the Ten Commandments on “a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches” in every classroom. The commandments have to be the display’s “central focus” and be “printed in a large, easily readable font,” the law says.
On Thursday, as legal experts debated how courts would see the Louisiana law, various religious leaders in the state voiced excitement and worry about what the Ten Commandments measure portends.
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Lawyers from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the ACLU said they planned to file a lawsuit next week against the new law. … “It’s true this Supreme Court hasn’t been the best on church-state issues but we think this will be a bridge too far. Nothing they have said remotely suggests they would allow Ten Commandments in every classroom, where students are a captive audience and required to attend,” said Heather Weaver, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
{snip}
By Michelle Boorstein
Michelle Boorstein has been a religion reporter since 2006. She has covered the shifting blend of religion and politics under four U.S. presidents, chronicled the rise of secularism in the United States, and broken financial and sexual scandals from the synagogue down the street to the Mormon Church in Utah to the Vatican. Twitter https://x.com/mboorstein
By Danielle Paquette
Danielle Paquette is a national correspondent for The Washington Post's America Desk. She previously served as West Africa bureau chief and has reported from more than 20 countries on four continents. Twitter
The state’s Republican governor signed a measure requiring taxpayer-financed schools to prominently post a specific version of the commandments by Jan. 1.
By Michelle Boorstein and Danielle Paquette
June 20, 2024 at 5:50 p.m. EDT
Then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) celebrates the Supreme Court decision allowing a Ten Commandments monument to stand outside the Texas Capitol on June 27, 2005, in Austin. (Jana Birchum/Getty Images)
Louisiana’s law requiring the Ten Commandments in every classroom will test the new legal climate created by the Supreme Court, which has tossed earlier standards that protected the separation of church and state, experts said Thursday.
The law signed by Gov. Jeff Landry (R) Wednesday is the first one of its kind in the country since 1980, when a more moderate Supreme Court ruled a similar Kentucky law unconstitutional. The new law gives schools until Jan. 1 to display the Ten Commandments on “a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches” in every classroom. The commandments have to be the display’s “central focus” and be “printed in a large, easily readable font,” the law says.
On Thursday, as legal experts debated how courts would see the Louisiana law, various religious leaders in the state voiced excitement and worry about what the Ten Commandments measure portends.
Story continues below advertisement
Lawyers from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the ACLU said they planned to file a lawsuit next week against the new law. … “It’s true this Supreme Court hasn’t been the best on church-state issues but we think this will be a bridge too far. Nothing they have said remotely suggests they would allow Ten Commandments in every classroom, where students are a captive audience and required to attend,” said Heather Weaver, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
{snip}
By Michelle Boorstein
Michelle Boorstein has been a religion reporter since 2006. She has covered the shifting blend of religion and politics under four U.S. presidents, chronicled the rise of secularism in the United States, and broken financial and sexual scandals from the synagogue down the street to the Mormon Church in Utah to the Vatican. Twitter https://x.com/mboorstein
By Danielle Paquette
Danielle Paquette is a national correspondent for The Washington Post's America Desk. She previously served as West Africa bureau chief and has reported from more than 20 countries on four continents. Twitter
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