NEW ORLEANS — A bill signed into law this week makes Louisiana the only state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges — and stirs the long-running debate over the role of religion in government institutions. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signs bills related to his education plan on Wednesday at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette, La.
Under the new law, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to have a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in a “large, easily readable font” next year. Civil liberties groups planned lawsuits to block the law signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, saying it would unconstitutionally breach protections against government-imposed religion.
“We’re going to be seeing Gov. Landry in court,” said Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. State officials are stressing the history of the Ten Commandments, which the bill calls “foundational documents of our state and national government.
” Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other statehouses, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. At Archbishop Shaw High School, a Catholic-run school in suburban New Orleans, the head of school, Father Steve Ryan, said he was pleased that the Ten Commandments will be posted on public school walls. “These laws, which are part of the Judeo-Chr.
