On June 20, Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law requiring public schools in Louisiana to display posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.  

From elementary to post-secondary schools, all Louisiana public schools must display a poster similar to the “plainly constitutional” ones revealed by Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill on Aug. 5. 

The duo revealed at least five different ideas for posters, including one titled “The House of Representatives and the Lawgivers,” featuring the Ten Commandments between a stone carving of “Moses the Lawgiver” and a photo of House Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana.  

Another poster features former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg next to historical documents such as the 1689 English Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, as well as a quote from a school paper that she wrote about the United Nations Charter when she was 13.  

Other potential posters include images and quotes from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., playwright and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda and former Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. 

Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spera, wrote an email to Rolling Stone Magazine regarding Ginsburg’s misquotation on the posters. “The use of my grandmother’s image in Louisiana’s unconstitutional effort to display the Ten Commandments in public schools is misleading and an affront to her well-documented First Amendment jurisprudence,” she said. 

The posters served to “illustrate that there are constitutional ways to apply this law,” Murrill said.  

There is some legal precedent to the Louisiana law. In the 1980 case of Stone v. Graham, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Kentucky. However, the 2005 Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Pary ruled that a monument of the Ten Commandments could be placed in a public park. 

While the bill passed easily through a Republican-controlled House, Senate and executive branch, the court immediately challenged the law. A coalition of groups filed a lawsuit, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and nine Louisiana families of different religious backgrounds. Within the nine families are four members of the clergy. 

“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom — rendering them unavoidable — unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” the suit said. 

“I think it’s a ridiculous invasion of religious and state crossover,” State Rep. Aimee Freeman, who represents Tulane’s district, said. “This country was founded on religious freedom, and I think it’s insulting and illegal.” Freeman voted against the bill. 

Some Louisiana public schools that are defendants in the lawsuit will not have to post the Ten Commandments until at least Nov. 15, due to an agreement between the state and the federal court.  

“Tell the child not to look at it,” Landry said at a news conference on Aug. 5. “Really and truly, I don’t see what the big fuss is about.” 

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed an executive order Tuesday preventing the use of critical race theory in Louisiana’s K-12 public education system. 

The governor’s office said Critical Race Theory (CRT) includes “divisive teachings that instruct students to view life through the lens of race and victimhood” and Landry believes students should be learning about “American exceptionalism and the principles embodied in State and Federal Constitutions of the United States of America that recognize the equal value of every individual.” 

“This executive order is a much-needed sigh of relief for parents and students across our state, especially as kids are heading back to school,” Landry said in a statement. “Teaching children that they are currently or destined to be oppressed or to be an oppressor based on their race and origin is wrong and has no place in our Louisiana classrooms.” 

“I am confident that under Dr. Brumley’s leadership our education system will continue to head in the right direction, prioritizing American values and common-sense teachings,” he added. 

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) unanimously voted in January to reappoint Dr. Cade Brumley as Louisiana State Superintendent of Education. 

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF KILLING JOURNALIST IN NEW ORLEANS CRASH

The executive order says, “inherently divisive concepts, like Critical Race Theory (‘CRT’) and its progeny instruct students to view the world through the lens of race and presume some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive and that some students are victims.”

The governor’s office says those “inherently divisive concepts are antithetical to America’s founding ideals of liberty, justice, equality, opportunity, and unity among its people.” 

The order cites Act 326 of the 2024 Legislative Session as having “codified that parents of public school children have the right that a school shall not discriminate against a child by teaching the child that he or she is currently or destined to be oppressed or to be an oppressor based on the child’s race or national origin.” 

Jeff Landry, then attorney general of Louisiana, speaks during a Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, March 30, 2023.  (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

‘WHITE FRAGILITY’ AUTHOR ALLEGEDLY PLAGIARIZED MINORITY ACADEMICS IN DOCTORAL THESIS

Landry directed Brumley to continue to review rules, bulletins, regulations, contracts and policies within the Department of Education and take action to eliminate or, if necessary, report to the Board of Elementary and Second Education any such materials that endorse theories that “an individual by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” 

A notebook and pencil on a desk in a school classroom (iStock)

Brumley, who has served as State Superintendent since 2020, is also instructed to report any content that promotes the belief that “an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex” or that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.” 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The order bans materials that claim “meritocracy or traits such as a strong work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by a particular race or sex to oppress another race or sex” or “encourage students to discriminate against someone based on the individual’s color, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, age, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, or any other characteristics protected by federal or state law.” 

Skip to Content

Advertisement