(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump on Friday expressed his support for displaying the Ten Commandments in schools, after the Republican governor of Louisiana signed new legislation requiring the state’s public schools to display them in all classrooms.
“I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND MANY OTHER PLACES. READ IT: HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, BE WRONG???” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social.
The former president added: “THIS MAY IN FACT BE THE FIRST IMPORTANT STEP IN REVIVING RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED IN OUR COUNTRY. BRING BACK TTC!!! MAGA2024.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the Club 47 group at the Palm Beach Convention Center on June 14, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Trump has courted religious voters ahead of the November elections, and Friday’s posts come a day before his speech to a gathering of conservative Christian voters in Washington.
What does the controversial law consist of?
House Bill 71, passed by state lawmakers last month and signed by Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday, requires that in all classrooms in schools that receive state funding, from kindergarten to college level, a poster of the Ten Commandments be posted in “large, easily readable fonts.” This makes Louisiana the first state to take such a measure.
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The legislation specifies the exact language that must be printed on classroom posters and states that the text of the Ten Commandments must be the central focus of the poster or framed document.
Before signing the bill, Landry called it “one of (my) favorites.”
“If you respect the rule of law, you have to start with the original law, which was Moses…He received his commandments from God,” the governor said.
Civil liberties groups have vowed to challenge the law, arguing that it is unconstitutional and violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent. Opponents of the mandate point to a constituent clause of the U.S. Constitution that says Congress may “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation have said they plan to file a lawsuit to challenge the new law, since it amounts to “unconstitutional religious coercion of students.”
“The First Amendment promises that we will all be able to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, we hold and practice, without pressure from the government. Politicians do not have to impose their religious doctrine on students and families in public schools,” the groups said in a joint statement.
Supporters of the mandate, for their part, cite the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave a high school football coach back his job after he received disciplinary action over a controversy involving praying in the field. The ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District ruled that the coach’s prayers amounted to private speech, which is protected by the First Amendment, and cannot be restricted by the school district, and that it essentially lowered the bar between Church and State. Legal experts at the time predicted that the decision would lead to greater religious expressions in public spaces.
Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, the bill’s Republican author, said at the time of the signing that “it’s like hope is in the air everywhere.” Horton dismissed concerns from Democratic opponents of the measure, saying that the Ten Commandments are rooted in legal history and that her bill seeks to place a “moral code” in classrooms.
CNN’s Stephanie Gallman and Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.
The post Trump supports new Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments to be displayed in schools appeared first on CNN.
