Louisiana Gov. Landry defends 10 Commandments in classrooms

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry defended a law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms on Monday during a news conference.

Landry defended the law requiring schools display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, noting that he plans to fight lawsuits against it, according to a livestream. Landry told several reporters during the conference hosted by state Attorney General Liz Murrill “if those posters are in school and they find them so vulgar, just tell the child not to look at it,” in response to the parents who disagree with the law.

Landry and Murrill responded to a lawsuit during the press conference, stating that a brief would be filed. Murrill noted that the lawsuit is premature since the schools have not physically displayed the posters yet and that the compliance date is January 2025.

Landry signed the law into effect in June, which sparked the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) along with several parents to sue Louisiana over the law, stating the display “unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption.”

The law requires all Louisiana schools from Kindergarten to college to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms along with a statement explaining how the Ten Commandments played a part in America’s education. Donations are used to pay for the posters in classrooms, and no public funding will be used.

“I did not know the Ten Commandments was such a bad way for someone to live their life,” Landry stated in the press conference.

Other states like Oklahoma have mandated the Bible be taught, which includes the Ten Commandments, in classrooms for grades five through 12 for the 2024-2025 school year. In a June memo, state Education Superintendent Ryan Walters stated that the Bible will be referenced as an “appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.”

“I don’t see what the whole big fuss is about,” Landry stated during the news conference.