Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) sent a letter to school superintendents, directing them to display the Ten Commandments in light of a recent court ruling permitting them to be placed in classrooms.
In his letter addressed to “all Public School Governing Authorities,” Landry wrote that the “Fifth Circuit’s decision removes any obstacles to the implementation of Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, and schools should now proceed with placing the posters in classrooms.”
“I believe that Louisiana students will greatly benefit from the posting of the Ten Commandments. Western Civilization and the United States of America are founded on the principles outlined such as ‘do not lie, do not steal, do not cheat, honor your father and mother,'” the letter added. “These principles have secular and historical significance in American jurisprudence and public education. Our founders were undoubtedly influenced by the Ten Commandments – it is my solemn hope that future leaders of Louisiana will be likewise inspired.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that her office “issued very clear guidance to all public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally.” She noted that all public schools are to “follow the law.”
The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that because the Ten Commandments are both religiously and historically significant, their “dual character forecloses any categorical rule against their display on public property,” the February ruling stated. While the law sets standards for the display, how they will be implemented is left “entirely to the discretion of local school boards.”
“We do not know, for example, how prominently the displays will appear, what other materials might accompany them, or how—if at all— teachers will reference them during instruction. More fundamentally, we do not even know the full content of the displays themselves,” the ruling explains. “Although the statute requires inclusion of the Commandments and a context statement, it expressly permits additional content —such as ‘the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance’—to appear alongside them.”
