Of course the law will get challenged, probably struck down by a federal court, and then get taken to the Supreme Court (which was the plan all along)
Louisiana classrooms now required by law to display the Ten Commandments
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
- Start date
Jeff Landry has done so much damage to our state in just a few months during the special session.
Landry and the Rs also repealed Edwards's very effective criminal justice reforms to supposedly address heightened crime, even though post-covid crime rates started plummeting months before he got into office. We'll be back to the #1 incarceration rate in the country (and planet!) in no time thanks to this.
Many criticized Edwards for being a conservative Democratic, but he was worlds better than Landry, and he was the best we could hope for in a state like this.
Landry and the Rs also repealed Edwards's very effective criminal justice reforms to supposedly address heightened crime, even though post-covid crime rates started plummeting months before he got into office. We'll be back to the #1 incarceration rate in the country (and planet!) in no time thanks to this.
Many criticized Edwards for being a conservative Democratic, but he was worlds better than Landry, and he was the best we could hope for in a state like this.
Can they point out which of the Ten Commandments Trump has violated?
This is wacko, just wacko
Wait, this applies to Universities too? LOL
This is wacko, just wacko
Wait, this applies to Universities too? LOL
Supporters of the law, in defending the measure, have leaned on the 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which gave a high school football coach his job back after he was disciplined over a controversy involving prayer on the field. The Supreme Court ruled that the coach's prayers amounted to private speech, protected by the First Amendment, and could not be restricted by the school district.
The decision lowered the bar between church and state in an opinion that legal experts predicted would allow more religious expression in public spaces. At the time, the court clarified that a government entity does not necessarily violate the establishment clause by permitting religious expression in public.
The legislation is part of a broader campaign by conservative Christian groups to amplify public expressions of faith, and provoke lawsuits that could reach the Supreme Court, where they expect a friendlier reception than in years past. That presumption is rooted in recent rulings, particularly one in 2022 in which the court sided with a high school football coach who argued that he had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team's games.
"The climate is certainly better," said Charles C. Haynes, a senior fellow at the Freedom Forum and a scholar with an expertise in religious liberty and civil discourse, referring to the viewpoint of those who support the legislation.
Still, Mr. Haynes said that he found the enthusiasm behind the Louisiana law and other efforts unwarranted. "I think they are overreaching," he said, adding that "even this court will have a hard time justifying" what lawmakers have conceived.
---------------------------
The measure in Louisiana requires that the commandments be displayed in each classroom of every public elementary, middle and high school, as well as public college classrooms. The posters must be no smaller than 11 by 14 inches and the commandments must be "the central focus of the poster" and "in a large, easily readable font."
It will also include a three-paragraph statement asserting that the Ten Commandments were a "prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries."
That reflects the contention by supporters that the Ten Commandments are not purely a religious text but also a historical document, arguing that the instructions handed down by God to Moses in the Book of Exodus are a major influence on United States law.
"The Ten Commandments is there, time and time again, as the basis and foundation for the system that America was built upon," said Matt Krause, a lawyer for the First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization defending religious expression.
---------------------------
Critics said the legislation was a clear constitutional violation. In a joint statement, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center argued that the law "violates students' and families' fundamental right to religious freedom."
"Our public schools are not Sunday schools," the statement said, "and students of all faiths, or no faith, should feel welcome in them."
The law is a product of a legislative season in which Republican lawmakers who had felt stifled for eight years under a Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, sought to advance a flurry of conservative legislation to Mr. Landry, his Republican successor.
In a special session this year, lawmakers rolled back a previous overhaul of the criminal justice system and passed bills to lengthen sentences for some offenses, strictly limit access to parole, prosecute 17-year-olds charged with any crime as adults and allow methods of execution beyond lethal injection.
Lawmakers also advanced first-in-the-nation measures like designating abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances and allowing judges to order surgical castration of child sex offenders.
Louisiana is the first state to enact a requirement for displaying the Ten Commandments in schools since the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law in 1980 that had a similar directive. In that case, Stone v. Graham, the court found that the law violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
But the Supreme Court has become more likely to rule in favor of religious rights under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
Perhaps the strongest signal, conservative lawyers and activists said, was the 2022 ruling that found that Joseph Kennedy, an assistant football coach at a public high school near Seattle, was protected by the First Amendment when he offered prayers after games, often joined by students.
With that ruling, the majority discarded a longstanding precedent known as the Lemon test, which was applied to cases related to the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The clause is intended to "prevent government from either advancing (that is, establishing) or hindering religion, preferring one religion over others, or favoring religion over nonreligion," Mr. Haynes wrote.
The test required courts to consider whether the government practice being challenged had a secular purpose, whether its primary effect was to advance or inhibit religion, and whether it encouraged excessive government entanglement with religion.
The ruling was "kind of an inflection point," Mr. Krause said, adding, "I think that any decision that was based solely on the Lemon test is open to new scrutiny, whether that was graduation prayers or Nativity scenes on public lands or the Ten Commandments."
The Louisiana legislation — and the litigation it essentially guarantees — provides an opportunity to apply that scrutiny to public displays of the Ten Commandments.
Reminds me of some of the criticism of Doug Jones. They absolutely do deserve criticism, but they were also the kind of democrats that can actually get elected here, infuriating as it is.
Remember when people rallied behind Edwin Edwards when the alternative was David Duke? Some days I wonder how that would go if it happened today.
Well clearly the US law is based on the Ten Commandments which is why we currently have all those laws being enforced regarding adultery. Such as:
I mean. This is mostly true. The religion's fundamental assumption is that 1) humans are inherently evil (due to original sin) and 2) therefore without the existence of god to punish sinners and reward the faithful via afterlife, life on earth cannot function.
Not aimed at you, just made me think...
Y'all gotta stop "What the fuck!?"-ing in every thread about this Republican bullshit.
Yes the fuck.
This ain't new.
They been telling you what they want and WILL do.
it's totally fine, it's just that I don't know what to say aside of "this is obviously bat shit insane and it should not be happening".
I fucking hate living here so much...and before the "why don't you leave?" A) it's not up to me as it's my family & B) with what money? fucking sucks dude.
that too...it really sucks, because for the most part, us Louisiana people are fantastic & deserve better than whatever fuck this is.
Especially very democrat New Orleans which is just held prisoner by the Republican state and leadership
as someone who is in new orleans and lived through several major hurricanes: climate change. most of us are trapped though!
Actually, if you want to respect the rule of law, you have to start with the constitution which explicitly prohibits this.
Not that it's ever stopped anyone, politics always trumps law here, but don't pretend you have any respect for the "rule of law".
Forcing your religion on others is just about rule, not law.
D
Even 10 commandments we accepted differ between denominations (not to mention Christianity and Judaism). So can you display anyone of them? Or all of them?
Not to mention there aren't any 10 commanments in Bible, there are like 150 of them.
Even 10 commandments we accepted differ between denominations (not to mention Christianity and Judaism). So can you display anyone of them? Or all of them?
as a strict constructionist who interprets the constitution exactly as the founders intended, the term "separation" in separation of church and state only means a gap, but not that only leaves room for jesus
Maybe people can find a loop hole, like have the ten commandments but have it written in the original language. If a conservative asks, then just berate them saying "Oh, I thought you wanted historical accuracy, so I had the original language used, not this woke English crap".
oh shit, laws that came directly from the creator of the whole universe..? woah that's amazing if they can prove that, and maybe they should be visible absolutely everywhere then, nothing can be as important, right?! project them on the moon's surface so we can all see them!
oh and what were these universally profound laws again? didn't see them mentioned in the article. weird!
oh and what were these universally profound laws again? didn't see them mentioned in the article. weird!
They absolutely believe this. The whole Bible is written in such a way that everyone that does not follow God is immoral and wicked, both in principle and factually in the stories. If you spend enough time with evangelicals you might even see them throwing the same insults the Bible has, like pharisee or sodomite.
I got to thinking about this - what's to stop a student from taking a spray paint can or marker to cover up the words of the Ten Commandments because it's infringing on their personal beliefs to see it displayed? Or staging a sit in and refuse to learn while it's being displayed? Or having an attorney tell a school system that they will not attend classes because the display infringe on their religious beliefs?
It's obvious that the governor/legislature didn't think this through; not everyone follows the Judeo-Christian beliefs and they shouldn't be forced to do so by proxy.
It's obvious that the governor/legislature didn't think this through; not everyone follows the Judeo-Christian beliefs and they shouldn't be forced to do so by proxy.