Louisiana has become the first state in the U.S. to require public schools and universities to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 into law during a press conference Wednesday along with a slew of other laws focused on education, including another bill establishing an education savings account.
The new Ten Commandments law has been touted by state GOP leaders as a way to bring history, culture and traditions back to the classroom. Civil rights groups have decried the bill, arguing that it is a clear violation of the separation between church and state.
To that end, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced hours after Landry's press conference that they plan to sue over the law, which they said "violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment."
"The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government," the groups said in a joint statement.
"Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools."
What does the Ten Commandments law say?
The law requires all classrooms in Louisiana, from kindergarten to college level courses, to hang a poster or framed document of the Ten Commandments that is in large, easy-to-read font.
The incoming lawsuit was an expected move and one that Landry has welcomed publicly.
During his keynote speech on Saturday at a Republican fundraiser in Tennessee, Landry touted the bill as a conservative victory in the ongoing culture wars and boasted that he "can't wait to be sued."
Lawmakers made several changes to the bill to head off the potential viability of lawsuits, including adding references to past court rulings that allowed Ten Commandments displays in certain public spaces, adding a "context statement" to post alongside the Commandments and allowing schools to also display other historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence.
Efforts have been made in other GOP-led states like Texas and Oklahoma to pass a similar bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments. But until now, those other efforts have failed.
