Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal to deceive voters through the use of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes.

While similar legislation outlawing the use of deceptive audio, images and videos for political purposes has passed uncontroversially in a growing number of other states, Louisiana’s governor claimed such a law infringes on the First Amendment rights of AI companies.

“While I applaud the efforts to prevent false political attacks, I believe this bill creates serious First Amendment concerns as it relates to emerging technologies,” Landry wrote of his veto last month. “The law is far from settled on this issue, and I believe more information is needed before such regulations are enshrined into law.”

Louisiana’s law would have held that: “No person shall cause to be distributed or transmitted any oral, visual, digital, or written material containing any image, audio, or video of a known candidate or of a person who is known to be affiliated with the candidate which he knows or should be reasonably expected to know has been created or intentionally manipulated to create a realistic but false image, audio, or video with the intent to deceive a voter or injure the reputation of a known candidate in an election.”

In vetoing the bill, the governor also pointed to a resolution directing the state’s Joint Legislative Committee on Technology and Cybersecurity to make recommendations on how the state should be using AI, a process that’s also underway in many other states.

Landry also vetoed a bill that would have required deepfake media to be watermarked, a new requirement in Connecticut, among other states.

Convincing deepfake media threatens to undermine a political process already being confused by social media algorithms. Numerous states are rushing to minimize the potential harm that generative AI tools could wreak on the nation’s information landscape. Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin are among the states that have passed laws adding AI provisions to laws designed to prevent deception in political campaigns. 

Megan Bellamy, vice president of law and policy at Voting Rights Lab, recently told StateScoop that deepfakes are an especially pernicious threat to democracy.

“AI-generated content can grab the voter’s attention, reach them faster and spread in more of a viral way than state board of elections and county board of elections and all of these trusted sources can overcome,” she said. 

In Arizona, repeatedly failing to label AI-generated political materials, or doing so with the intent to incite violence, was this year made a felony.

Landry, a Republican who formerly served as the state’s attorney general, also currently finds himself amid other controversies — he signed a law last month that will require public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. The American Civil Liberties Union said it plans to file a lawsuit, a fight it won at least once, including in 2002 when the group’s Maryland branch dismissed a lawsuit against the City and County of Frederick for displaying the biblical text in a public park.

The July 4th holiday is upon us in Louisiana.  School kids have been out in cities like Lafayette, New Iberia, Opelousas, and Crowley for more than a month. That means our mindset along the bayou is less about school days and more about sun days. That’s the sun as in fun in the sun as opposed to our weekly day of rest.

The July 4th holiday falls on a Thursday. Not the best day of the week but at least it’s not a Wednesday. And for a lot of us, the Fourth of July means getting in or on the water. We love to take the boat out to our secret fishing spot and we also love to water ski.

But then again, there is something that is quite relaxing about just going with the flow. You know, taking a float trip down a scenic Louisiana waterway. We have our tubes, our friends, and our tubes for our drinks, and what could go wrong?

Drownings Are On The Increase in Louisiana

From 2020 to 2021 Louisiana saw an increase of 60% in the number of reported drownings. Many of these fatal mishaps occurred in backyard swimming pools or more structured bathing facilities. However, there were more than a few that happened in our state’s lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.

This got us to wonder, what is Louisiana’s most dangerous body of water.

At first blush, we contemplated the Mississippi River. It’s a very busy waterway and the opportunity for a mishap is quite plentiful. Fortunately, in order to pilot a vessel on the Father of Waters you have to be trained and licensed.

Then we contemplated the Gulf of Mexico. Every year we hear of fatal mishaps that involved the coastal waters of Louisiana. But the problem with the Gulf is where do you draw the line. If a cruise boat passenger sailing from Louisiana falls off the boat near Mexico, is that still a “Louisiana Gulf of Mexico” mishap? 

Louisiana’s Most Dangerous Body of Water is 112 Miles Long

We did some snooping online and discovered through the website, Only in Your State, that the most treacherous body of water in Louisiana only covers a very short distance. To the untrained eye, the surface of the water looks to be calm and peaceful but the danger is lurking beneath the whiskey-brown shade of water that is slowly flowing by.

The body of water listed by Only in Your State as the most dangerous in Louisiana is the Amite River. The river is very popular with sportsmen, especially in the lower 30 some odd miles. So there is a lot of traffic in that part of the river but that’s not why the Amite earns the title of “Most Dangerous”.

Why Is the Amite River Louisiana’s Most Dangerous Body of Water?

The answer to that is two-fold. The river is dangerous because of the limited visibility. You can’t see more than a few inches underwater, that is if you could even stand to open your eyes. So, things that go into the water are seldom seen again. There are also a lot of hidden branches, trees, and debris that can snag a person’s foot while they are swimming.

The second and probably the biggest reason the Amite River is considered to be the “most dangerous” has to do with the popularity of the river. Not only do fishermen love the Amite but those who love a good float trip flock to the Amite River as soon as it’s warm enough to get in the water.

The sheer volume of people creates more opportunities for tragedy especially when you mix in abundant sunshine, coolers of alcohol, and a laissez-less bon temps rouler attitude.

Fortunately, most people who float the Amite River do so with a group. That means people looking out for people. If you do plan on floating this river or any body of water this summer, make sure you have a friend too. Never swim alone and don’t ever dive into water that you don’t know the depth of. Be safe and have fun and remember it is not the river that’s dangerous, it’s the actions of the people on the river that cause the problems.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signs bills related to his education plan, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette, La. Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday, June 24, challenging Louisiana’s new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom. Brad Bowie/New Orleans Times-Picayune via AP, file

BATON ROUGE, La. — Even as a legal challenge is already underway over a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms, the details of how the mandate will be implemented and enforced remain murky.

Across the country there have been conservative pushes to incorporate religion into classrooms, from Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students to Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons.

In Louisiana, the logistics for the new law are still unclear.

Unless a court halts the legislation, schools have just over five months until they will be required to have a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in all public school K-12 and state-funded university classrooms. But it’s unclear whether the new law has any teeth to enforce the requirement and penalize those who refuse to comply.

Supporters of the law say donations will pay for the thousands of posters needed, while critics argue the law is an unfunded mandate that could burden schools. And teachers in some schools have said they likely won’t hang the posters, including in the blue city of New Orleans, where residents and officials have a history of resisting conservative policies.

FUNDING THE REQUIREMENT

Louisiana has more than 1,300 public schools. Louisiana State University has nearly 1,000 classrooms at the main Baton Rouge campus alone and seven other campuses statewide. That means thousands of posters will be needed to satisfy the new law.

The Louisiana Department of Education is required by the new law to identify and post on its website resources that can provide the posters free of charge.

Lawmakers backing the bill said during debate in May that the posters or funds to print them will likely be donated to schools in this deep Bible Belt state. Nationwide praise for the law from conservative groups and figures including, most recently, former President Donald Trump, could result in outside financial support for the mandate.

Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian conservative organization, has already created a page on its website for donations that “will be used specifically for the purpose of producing and distributing ‘10 Commandments’ displays to educational institutions around Louisiana.”

But the question of what happens if a school doesn’t receive enough donations has lingered for months with little clarity.

“So schools have the ability to raise the funds or they (the posters) can be donated. But, what if you can’t raise the funds or find a donor?” state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who voted against the law, asked during debate on the legislation last month.

“I don’t know what happens then,” replied state Sen. Adam Bass, a Republican who co-authored the law.

The Associated Press reached out to multiple co-authors of the bill, including Bass and the offices of Attorney General Liz Murrill, Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, but did not receive answers to questions about funding.

Lawmakers supporting the bill were adamant during debate that the law is clear in saying donations would be used to obtain the posters. Others suggest the law’s language may still allow for the purchase of displays through public funds.

“Louisiana’s law does not appear to prohibit the use of public funds to pay for the Ten Commandments displays. Such use of taxpayer money would only exacerbate this egregious constitutional violation,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who opposes the law.

The law says it “shall not require” a public school governing authority to spend its funds to purchase displays. Instead, “to fund the displays free of charge, the school public governing authority shall” either accept donated funds to purchase the displays or accept donated displays.

Even with sufficient donations, opponents say the state is still spending money and resources to defend a lawsuit over a requirement that they argue is unconstitutional.

But supporters say it is a battle they are willing to fight.

ENFORCEMENT OF NEW LAW

Louisiana’s 2020 teacher of the year, Chris Dier, said he doesn’t intend to post the Ten Commandments in his classroom.

“I don’t believe in doing something that is unconstitutional and harmful to students,” said Dier, who teaches at a New Orleans high school.

It’s unclear whether failure to comply will result in punishment as the language in the law does not list any repercussions. While the law specifies that Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopt “rules and regulations” to ensure the “proper implementation” of the mandate, enforcement could fall to parish school boards or local school districts.

A similar law passed last year mandates “In God We Trust” be displayed in classrooms. The enforcement and penalties for noncompliance with that law are determined by local education agencies, said Kevin Calbert a spokesperson for the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The AP emailed 55 members of parish school boards across the state, including rural and urban parishes in Republican-dominated and Democratic-leaning areas, to ask if they support the law and how they plan to enforce it. Two replied, saying they support the mandate.

Carlos Luis Zervigon, vice president of the Orleans Parish School Board, thought differently, describing it as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“I’ve heard no talk or interest in considering enforcing this,” the former history teacher said. “What would be my instinct, is to do nothing, unless forced to do so.”

With schools out and many school boards meeting less frequently in the summer, Zervigon said his board hasn’t yet talked about the requirement. However, if tasked with figuring out the implementation and enforcement of the mandate, he is likely to take a “wait-and-see attitude” until the court rules.

“I could see myself crafting a resolution that could say something to the effect of, ‘We will not enforce it until we get legal clarity of whether this is constitutional or not,’” he said.

However, if New Orleans takes the lead, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry “may exercise retribution,” Zervigon said.

Landry, a Republican, attempted to punish New Orleans in the past after city officials expressed opposition to enforcement of Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban.

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