cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/26193492
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the entry into force of a Louisiana law that would have required all public classrooms in the state to prominently display the Ten Commandments.
Article mentions the Bill of Rights, and I haven’t really looked at that since middle school, so I wanted to brush up.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Emphasis mine.
Definitely a very short passage and I’m no lawyer. I could see arguments for how this does not disallow a state to mandate a religious text be included somewhere.
However, I’m a staunch believer in the separation of Church and state so I’m leaning more towards the spirit of the law rather than the letter here - seems clear that religion of any kind should never be mandated
Also I cannot believe any state congressional time was wasted on such a pointless rule. I would be astounded if this had any measurable effects on any child beyond them remembering a few more of the commandments than their peers. But morally I imagine there will be no difference
IANAL.
If it’s only the ten commandments, then it establishes that religion via display in government buildings. If there were other religions along side it, might be more wiggle room, but Satanists often challenge this by demanding a statue of baphomet be also displayed.
There’s tons of cases about this that make it very clear.
