By Lucy Adautin
The Governor of Louisiana has approved a bill that mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in this conservative US State, the BBC reports.
The bill has sparked intense debates about the separation of church and state since signed on Wednesday
This legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, requires that the biblical text be displayed beginning in 2025 in all public school classrooms, from kindergarten through state-funded universities.
At the bill’s signing ceremony, Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, stated, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original law given — which was Moses”.
The new law mandates that the Ten Commandments be displayed as either a poster or a framed document, printed in a large, easily readable font, according to the bill’s text.
In response to the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced plans to challenge it in court.
“The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the ACLU stated.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution prohibits the establishment of a national religion or favoring one religion over another.
Known as HB 71, this bill is the first of its kind to be enacted, although similar proposals have been introduced in other southern states within the US “Bible Belt.”
