Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed off on a new law this week requiring all public and state-funded schools to post visible displays of the “Ten Commandments,” making Louisiana the first U.S. state to enact such a policy.
Landry, a Republican, signed House Bill 71 into law on Wednesday, after it passed through the House by a 79-16 vote late last month. The law, which takes effect immediately, requires all public schools and private educational institutions that receive government funding to post displays of the Ten Commandments in all classrooms and office buildings. It also mandates specific language that should be used for each commandment, and even requires schools to use a specific paper size for their displays — no less than 11 by 14 inches — and to ensure the text is “the central focus of the poster” and “printed in a large, easily readable font.” (We’re sure they’ll make an exception for Papyrus.)
Louisiana is now the only U.S. state to require its schools to display the Ten Commandments, although Mississippi has required state schools to post the motto “In God We Trust” since 2001, as the Associated Press noted this week. Louisiana matched that requirement last year as well.
HB 71 was authored by GOP Rep. Dodie Horton, who first took office in 2015. Horton is also the chief sponsor of HB 122, which passed through both chambers of the state legislature last month and awaits Landry’s signature. That bill would bar teachers in K-12 schools from discussing sexual orientation or gender with students under most circumstances. Horton first tried to pass that bill in 2022, unsuccessfully.
During debate on HB 71 in April, Horton openly expressed her desire to introduce more conservative Christian ideas into state law, as the Times-Picayune first noted.
“I’m not concerned with an atheist. I’m not concerned with a Muslim,” Horton said, referring to teachers who are not Christian. “I’m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God’s law is.”
But Horton’s rhetoric seems mismatched with that of other Republicans, like Sen. J. Adam Bass, who insisted the bill’s purpose was “not solely religious” during debate, according to the Times-Picayune. The commandments, Bass argued, carry “historical significance” to the U.S. as “one of many documents that display the history of our country and foundation of our legal system.”
