Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, but thou shalt be subjected to specific religious beliefs in a public school classroom?That’s what Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry believes. On June 19, he signed House Bill 71 into law, which requires a copy of the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom, library, and cafeteria across the state. Landry, a Republican, when signing the bill, said, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.” Landry is free to believe this, as any American is, but it is not the place of the American public education system to teach this belief. It’s right there in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” That line has sustained two centuries of American separation of church and state, one of the founding principles and most important values of our democracy. It’s difficult to come up with any interpretation of our Constitution that would allow this breach of the clear line between religion and government, but that hasn’t stopped conservative lawmakers in Louisiana from trying. Landry has argued that the purpose of the bill is simply to expose students to an important historical document, but an explicit endorsement of a certain religious viewpoint in public schools is not the same as having the Declaration of Independence posted on the classroom wall.
There has been no shortage of debates over the role of religion in US public schools throughout our history—a similar bill was even proposed in Kentucky in 1980 that also required the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms. Concerned parents and civil rights groups sued and brought the case all the way to the Supreme Court in the case of Stone v. Graham. The Court struck down the bill, saying in its majority opinion that “Kentucky’s statute requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school rooms has no secular legislative purpose, and is therefore unconstitutional.” Seeing as the First Amendment hasn’t changed at all since 1980, this ruling should apply to Louisiana’s House Bill 71. But today’s SCOTUS is made up of a 6:3 conservative majority and has shown that it is perfectly capable of making radically conservative decisions such as the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. No case regarding the bill has made it to the Supreme Court yet, but it’s not out of the question. After the bill was passed in June, parents and civil rights groups joined forces with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to sue the state, arguing that Bill 71 is unconstitutional. For now, the lawsuit has made some impact; Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill announced that the bill would not be implemented until November 15, but that the posters would remain in schools until at least 2025.
Sure, proponents of the bill can argue that no students are being forced to believe the Ten Commandments, but Bill 71 is still an instance of Louisiana creating a law that implies a state-chosen religion, a clear violation of the First Amendment. Such exposure to religion has the potential to be influential to students, especially younger students who may observe the poster and accept it as a fact—the same way they would the number line or the world map on the wall.
It’s not like there is no other option than a secular education. After all, the same First Amendment that restricts the state from promoting one religion protects the freedom of Americans to worship any religion in the way that they choose. If parents prefer their children to receive a religious education, they are free to send them to a religious school. But public school is sacred and regulated by the government—an institution meant to educate American children through a secular curriculum. No one is encroaching on Louisianans’ or Americans’ right to practice the religion they believe in, whether that be Christianity and the Ten Commandments, any other faith, or no religion at all. But our freedom of religion does not and should not give a governor or legislature the freedom to enforce their personal beliefs on everyone else.
Meg Korte • Oct 8, 2024 at 10:20 PM
This is a well researched and written article that clearly reveals a correct interpretation and understanding of the First Amendment. This should be a must read for Governor Landry of Louisiana,