A coalition of civil liberties groups filed suit Monday against Louisiana after its governor last week signed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms starting in 2025. .
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its Louisiana branch, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom of Religion Foundation filed the suit on behalf of a multi-faith group of nine Louisiana families. with children in public schools.
The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana alleges that the new law violates the First Amendment and “substantially interferes with and burdens” the rights of parents to direct their children’s religious education.
The plaintiffs are made up of a group of Jewish, Christian, Unitarian, Universalist and non-religious individuals.
“It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments – or, more accurately, the specific version of the Ten Commandments that HB 71 requires schools to display – do not belong in their own school community. and must refrain from expressing any religious practices or beliefs that do not align with the state’s religious preferences,” the lawsuit says.
The law requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed on easy-to-read posters in public school classrooms, with three paragraphs about how the religious text played an influential role in American history.
“If you want to respect the rule of law,” said Gov. Jeff Landry (R) during the bill signing, “you have to start with the original lawmaker, who was Moses.”
Landry added at the time that he “can’t wait to be sued,” which the ACLU promised to do just hours after the bill was signed into law.
“As a non-religious family, we object to the government forcibly subjecting our children to a religious scripture we do not believe in. The state of Louisiana should not direct the religious education of our children and require students to observe the state’s preferred religious doctrine in every classroom,” said Jennifer Harding and Benjamin Owens, plaintiffs in the case.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said her office “cannot comment on a lawsuit we have not seen.”
“It appears that the ACLU only selectively cares about the First Amendment — it doesn’t mind when the Biden administration censors speech or arrests pro-life protesters, but it apparently will fight to prevent posters that discuss our own legal history,” Murrill said.
—Updated at 4:36 p.m. ET
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
