Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is spoiling for a fight. Landry on Wednesday signed into law a bill that requires the posting of the 10 Commandments in the state’s K-12 classrooms and colleges receiving state funding. Landry, the state’s former attorney general, said when signing the bill, that he “can’t wait to be sued,” by the usual suspects, which have already launched an all-out legal assault on the new law.
Their claims are familiar to many of us. One coalition of organizations quickly announced their plans to sue the state, saying in a statement, “Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.” Meanwhile, Azhar Majeeda, the government affairs director for a group called The Center for Inquiry, argued that the law, “is meant to impose Christianity on all students in Louisiana’s public schools, even if they belong to a minority religion or no religion at all.”
Invectives, ad hominem attacks and Leftist hysteria aside, these plaintiffs and others fundamentally argue the law violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It’s a simple passage of 16 words reading, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But in unpacking these arguments against the new law, it’s a good idea to first unpack the 10 Commandments.
The Center for Inquiry claims the new law will impose Christianity on students. That’s odd because Majeeda, whose first name means ‘shining’ or ‘brilliant’ in Arabic, neglected to mention that Islam recognizes the 10 Commandments as handed down to Moses. Judaism also believes and teaches the 10 Commandments. Louisiana isn’t imposing Christianity on students; it’s requiring an 11 x 14 inch poster that includes the fundamental code of law acknowledged by the world’s largest monotheistic religions, along with a collection of smaller ones.
Louisiana is promoting a millennia-old collection of law recognized by the 4.2 billion-plus people who practice Christianity, Islam or Judaism. That’s more than half of Earth’s population, so it’s difficult to support claims of one religion being preferred over another. But are the 10 Commandments an affront to people of other faiths? Perhaps, but probably not. Buddhism has its 10 Precepts of morality. Hinduism believes in a number of similar rules, most paralleling those revealed to Moses. Sikhs follow their own code of 10 Principle Beliefs. All told, these beliefs apply to about 78% of all the people in the world.
This raises a legitimate question of precisely which religion is being established. Based on the faith traditions of the world’s religions, it appears Louisiana is promoting something believed by most of them. Given that billions of people, of different faiths, believe the 10 Commandments or their analogs, it’s hard to see any “preferred religious doctrine,” being imposed.
The atheist parents raising children who attend public school, and a fringe of people in other faiths, are upset by this law. Perhaps these parents are opposed to reminding children that murder, theft, lying, envy, disrespecting parents, and sexual promiscuity are wrong. They would likely say no. But atheists and others oppose the recognition of any god, any entity, higher than the state. It’s a philosophy that’s foundational to Marxism and its offshoots. No power may be greater than that of government and the first four Commandments violate that Marxist tenet. But atheism and similar ideologies have curious parallels to those Commandments.
People shall have no god before the state. They shall not falsely portray the state and shall not make fun of it. They shall keep their sabbaths - weekends, federal holidays and so forth - holy. Such ideologies may be more philosophy than religion but they absolutely have and exercise their faith; faith in the state.
While the Louisiana law requires the posting of the Commandments, it doesn’t compel taxpayers to underwrite the cost of doing so. The legislation requires that posters be paid for with private donations. Pacifists can complain about their tax dollars paying for wars but atheists can’t make the same argument about the 10 Commandments in government schools.
The success of the plaintiffs in these lawsuits is uncertain. What is certain is that one or more of these cases will make their way to the Supreme Court of the United States, depending on the appeals by whichever party doesn’t get its way in the lower courts. Betting on any decision by the high court’s nine justices is a legal crap shoot, and Louisiana’s law may well be struck down as unconstitutional. We’ll find out in a year or two.
Jeff Landry is getting the fight he asked for, to which I say bully for him. And if the Supreme Court ultimately rules against Louisiana, Landry can say what President Joe Biden did after the court struck down his student loan forgiveness plan. “The Supreme Court blocked it,” said Biden, “but that didn’t stop me.”