Louisiana’s new law threatens the sanctity of the Ten Commandments

Publisher’s Note: Eli Federman has written for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters and other publications. Follow him on X @elfman . The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. view more opinion at CNN.

This year, the Jewish holiday of Shavuot began on the evening of June 11. The holiday commemorates Moses delivering the Torah (the “Law”) and the Ten Commandments – a central religious text in Christianity, Islam and Judaism – and underlines the deeply religious nature of the commandments.

Louisiana’s House Bill 71, signed Wednesday by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry after overwhelmingly passing the House of Representatives and Senate, attempts to unfairly secularize this sacred and unique religious document by requiring it to be displayed in public schools.

This unprecedented law is the first to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments, requiring “elementary schools, secondary schools, and colleges” to display them in an “easy-to-read font” on a poster “at least eleven by fourteen inches.” Other states, including Utah, Texas and South Carolina, have attempted to pass similar legislation.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach can pray publicly at the 50-yard line immediately after a game. Although that ruling was based on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, it and others are being misinterpreted to fuel proponents of these Constitution-undermining bills that clearly violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a “religion.”

HB 71 not only violates the separation of church and state, but also harms religion by undermining the sanctity of the Commandments. The legislation references civil documents such as The Mayflower Compact of 1620, citing phrases such as “a covenant with Almighty God to ‘form a civil body politic’” in an attempt to place the compact on the same historical foundation as the deeply religious Ten Commandments. Such secularization relegates the Commandments to a mere historical document, eroding faith, mischaracterizing the origins of Scripture, and violating the Constitution.

With HB 71, proponents ultimately hope that the Supreme Court will overturn established precedents such as Stone v. Graham, which held in 1980 that “mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms has no secular legislative purpose and is therefore unconstitutional .”

To make the law appear constitutional, proponents argue that the Ten Commandments are historical documents integral to the foundation of Western civilization. State senators like Adam Bass point to their exhibit at the Supreme Court, where images of Moses and the tablets appear in sculptures and carvings. At the same time, the bill’s author, Rep. Dodie Horton, the measure for introducing God and “God’s laws” into the classroom.

The Ten Commandments have influenced universal Western principles, including the sanctity of life, the importance of honesty, and the need for justice. “Thou shalt not kill” helped develop prohibitions against taking innocent life, while “Thou shalt not steal” helped form the basis for laws protecting property rights. The idea of ​​”not bearing false witness” is related to perjury laws, and “honor thy father and mother” has influenced societal values ​​surrounding family and respect for elders.

At their core, however, the Ten Commandments are fundamentally religious edicts. Monotheistic faiths such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam believe that these guidelines are divine mandates from God to Moses, establishing a moral order deeply rooted in theistic belief. Unlike other scriptures, these commandments are described in Exodus as being “written with the finger of God.” Why would religious people want children (or anyone else) to view them as primarily historical documents?

Jews around the world celebrate the deeply religious holiday of Shavuot with public readings of the Ten Commandments in synagogues. There is even the custom of staying up all night to study the Torah to commemorate the historic revelation and correct the mistake of the Israelites who fell asleep the night before God gave the commandments.

An amendment to HB 71 provided for the voluntary display of historical documents such as the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance at the same time. While an attempt was made to analogize these documents to the deeply religious text of the Decalogue, the imposition of religion in the classroom is still evident—displaying the Commandments would be required, but the civic documents would be voluntary.

It is of course an insult to religion to equate the commandments with those historical documents, and no reasonable person would agree that a statement or promise that quotes “God” is the same as a religious text that described as a product of the “finger of God.”

Additionally, the Ten Commandments contain guidelines that explicitly reference God and religious observance, such as “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3) and “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). These commandments enforce specific religious beliefs, as opposed to the general ethics derived from other documents such as the Declaration of Independence or Magna Carta that also reference God.

What’s next? Interpret the Sabbath as merely promoting work-life balance, or the absence of another God as a new age warning against the worship of men, materialism, or false values? By reframing these religious texts as civic documents, they are robbed of the spirituality that is integral to religious practice and belief.

HB 71 itself also unconstitutionally sides with religious expression, as it would require a rendition of the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments translated from the King James Bible. Because Catholics, Muslims, and Jews have different versions of the commandments, showing the Protestant version endorses them over other religious versions (and over traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism, which have none at all), thus reinforcing the separation of church and state is violated.

To better understand the unique religious nature of the Ten Commandments, even in historical context, consider other ancient legal codes. The Code of Hammurabi references the deity Shamash and provided an extensive legal code for Babylon, influenced by the needs and structures of ancient Mesopotamia. Likewise, the Twelve Tables addressed the legal needs of Roman citizens in the 5th century BCE. The Egyptians had the goddess Ma’at who governed truth and justice, and the Greeks used their pantheon of twelve gods to teach moral lessons.

In contrast to these law books, the Ten Commandments are described in the Bible as having originated in the desert of Sinai, far from societal influences. This emphasizes that they are divine commandments and not products of a secular human culture or society.

By keeping displays of the Ten Commandments outside of public schools, we respect their sacred religious nature and recognize their role in religious traditions such as the observance of Shavuot. We must preserve traditions by preventing their meaning from being diluted and ensuring that public education remains a neutral space, free from religious support.

This story has been updated to reflect the latest news developments.

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