Former President Donald Trump offered his support Thursday for a new Louisiana law that mandates placing the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
GOP Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill into law Wednesday that requires a poster-sized display with “large, easily readable font” must be placed in classrooms from kindergarten to state-funded universities.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???”
“THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY. BRING BACK TTC!!! MAGA2024,” he added. TTC refers to the Ten Commandments.
Proponents of the new law argued that the Ten Commandments have played a role beyond religion in forming the nation’s laws and traditions.
In fact, the Louisiana law requires that a four-paragraph context statement be included with the display, explaining that the Commandments are part of “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
No state funds are earmarked to be used in implementing the mandate. Instead, the posters can be paid for through private donations.
Opponents of the new law say it violates the Constitution, citing the First Amendment, which states, in part, that Congress shall “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Should the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms?
The American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced Wednesday they would be filing a suit to challenge the new law.
They pointed to the 1980 Supreme Court case Stone v. Graham, in which the justices ruled that a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
At that time the Court cited the so-called Lemon test to determine whether a law had the effect of establishing a religion.
In the 1971 case Lemon v. Kurtzman, the justices had adopted an analysis that required government action to be ruled unconstitutional if it had a primary effect of advancing a particular religion.
The Supreme Court abandoned the Lemon test in the 2022 case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, determining the establishment clause “must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’”
So it appears the Louisiana Ten Commandments display would have a good chance of being ruled constitutional under this guidance, given the prevalence of Christian beliefs in the nation’s laws and history.
And based on the Bible!
Moses, the Lawgiver, is a statue that is no longer “politically correct.”
Moses, holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, is the center figure on the East Pediment of the Supreme Court building.
On the wall directly behind the Chief Justice’s… pic.twitter.com/VwaQrt8lZL
— Linda Marie Lovison (@lilo623) August 15, 2023
The first sentence of the Declaration of Independence references the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” as a basis for the colonists’ actions.
The pre-eminent law book at the time of the founding Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Law of England,” (first published in 1765) explained the phrase.
“Upon these two foundations, the law of nature [established by God and observable in creation] and the law of revelation [found in the Bible, directly revealed by God], depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these,” Blackstone wrote.
All state constitutions reference God, usually in their preambles and often as the source of their liberties under law, according to the Pew Research Center. Thirty-four of them refer to God more than once.
Nearly every president since George Washington has placed his hand on the Bible while being sworn into office and speaking an oath that ends, “so help me God.”
Addressing the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tennessee in February, Trump said, “I really believe it’s the biggest thing missing from this country, it’s the biggest thing missing,” he said. “We have to bring back our religion. We have to bring back Christianity in this country.”
“We have to bring back our religion; we have to bring back Christianity in this country!” – President Trump.⁰
Watch President Trump’s NRB Speech: https://t.co/NGJEPz6a34 pic.twitter.com/5l8eWbx6Te
— Real America’s Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) February 23, 2024
“We will protect God in our public square,” the Republican presidential candidate pledged.
Amen! Faith in God has been at the core of the American experiment in liberty and must be again if we are to survive as a free and prosperous people.
