A judge approved an agreement by Louisiana to delay a law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in all of the state’s public-school classrooms on Friday, July 19. The judge’s decision to delay the requirement until at least November came as a lawsuit brought against the state plays out in court.
In June, parents of students in Louisiana public schools filed a lawsuit that argued the law violates the First Amendment, which prevents the government establishment of religions and guarantees the right to religious liberty.
However, proponents of the law contend that the Ten Commandments belong in public schools because they are historical and part of the foundation of United State law.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jeff Landry, R-La., defended the use of taxpayer money to fight against lawsuit brought against the law.
“I think that the benefit of what we’re trying to do certainly outweighs any expenditures,” Landry said in an interview with Nexstar Media.
Landry also used the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump to further push his defense of the law.
“Maybe, if the Ten Commandments were hanging on Crooks [sic] wall of the school that he was in, maybe, he wouldn’t have took [sic] a shot at the president,” Landry added.
The United States Supreme Court struck down a similar law to Louisiana’s Ten Commandments in 1980 on the grounds that it violated the establishment clause in the U.S. Constitution. The clause states that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The court found that the law clearly served a religious purpose and not a secular one.
