“I’m not concerned with an atheist. I’m not concerned with a Muslim,” said Louisiana State Rep. Dodie Horton (R), explaining why she sponsored a bill requiring every public school in the state — kindergarten through college — to display the Ten Commandments.
“I’m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God’s law is,” continued the Republican from Bossier Parish in the northwest corner of the state.
Although Horton may not hold Catholics and Jews in similar disregard, her statute raises problems for their faiths, and others, as well.
Veto-proof majorities in both houses of the state legislature passed House Bill 71, with the only opposition coming from a handful of Democrats. Once it is signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, Louisiana will be the only state to mandate displaying the Ten Commandments, “on a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches” in every classroom, “printed in a large, easily readable font.”
The very specificity of the bill, which includes a governmentally endorsed religious text, may prove its undoing.
Civil liberties organizations in Louisiana have already issued a statement calling the law unconstitutional. “Our public schools are not Sunday schools,” it reads, “and students of all faiths — or no faith — should feel welcome in them.”
Classroom displays of the Ten Commandments were held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in........