Baton Rouge Creed: Thou shalt provoke lawsuits

June 23—Conservative politicians in Louisiana are determined to be as stubborn and foolish as those in small-town New Mexico.

Louisiana recently enacted a law requiring public schools and colleges to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The state that tried to make us forget white supremacist David Duke and crazy District Attorney Jim Garrison has taken 10 giant steps backwards with this legislation.

Louisiana lawmakers hope to expand their mandate to Christianity in classrooms, claiming they are highlighting a historical document rather than a religious document.

Years of costly litigation lie ahead. Public money that should be spent on labs, improving Internet access and retaining good teachers could end up compensating rival lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union.

That’s what happened after Bloomfield, a community in northwestern New Mexico, placed a Ten Commandments monument in front of city hall.

Most Bloomfield residents applauded the City Council’s decision. But at least a few dozen publicly objected, saying the government has nothing to do with favoring one religion over others. The ACLU took the case on behalf of the city’s oppressed, and its lawyers proved to be formidable.

A U.S. District Court judge and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Bloomfield violated the constitution by displaying the 3,400-pound religious monument on city property.

Bloomfield prolonged the legal skirmishes until the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case in 2018. With that, the city’s last possible avenue of appeal was closed.

The consequences of the case were expensive. Bloomfield, population 7,300, owed the ACLU $700,000 to cover its legal fees. The city solicited private donations to help pay the debt.

As Bloomfield City Councilman Kevin Mauzy used his platform to advocate for the privately funded Ten Commandments monument to be displayed on public property. In a weekend interview, I asked Mauzy if he regretted a decision that involved his city in a court fight.

“No, not at all. You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything,” he said.

Asked why his side lost the case, Mauzy said: “I think people can’t read. There’s nothing in the Constitution about the separation of church and state.”

Then-U.S. District Court Judge James Parker, appointed to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, had a different opinion. Parker ruled that the Constitution prohibited Bloomfield’s religious display.

“Given the circumstances surrounding the context, history and purpose of the Ten Commandments monument, it is clear that the City of Bloomfield has violated the Establishment Clause,” Parker wrote. “His conduct in authorizing the continued display of the monument on city property had the principal or primary effect of endorsing religion.”

Mauzy told me that the Ten Commandments monument was just one of four in the city dedicated to US history. What he forgot to mention was that the other three monuments – including the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights – were established after the ACLU sued Bloomfield for displaying the Ten Commandments.

No one disputed that President Abraham Lincoln’s speech to a city devastated during the Civil War was historic. Bloomfield’s display of the Ten Commandments was not comparable to a monument above Gettysburg or to documents created by the Founding Fathers.

After losing in court, Bloomfield moved the monument to a church near City Hall. Seven years of legal jousts would have been avoided if the monument had been placed for religious reasons.

Santa Fe is much more liberal than Bloomfield. Interestingly, a six-foot-tall granite tablet of the Ten Commandments is displayed in Santa Fe’s Ashbaugh Park, near a city fire station. The monument was donated to the city in 1968 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

Unnoticed by residents and tourists alike, the Ten Commandments sign has drawn objections primarily from the Religious Freedom Foundation, based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Obscurity protected Santa Fe’s Ten Commandments monument from lawsuits. In Louisiana, the Republican-controlled Legislature made a point of being ostentatious with its law to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Many of the Louisiana lawmakers who say they are concerned about crowded court cases and preserving local control of schools have come clean. Eager to begin a process that will drag on for years, they care more about the headlines than the story.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.