The Ten Commandments, Political Aggression, Christian Nationalism and the Fierce Arrogance of Right Wing Politics!
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was brimming with pride and arrogance when he signed into law a requirement that every classroom in his state — from kindergarten classrooms to college chemistry labs — will be required to display a copy of the Ten Commandments. In fact, the shameless Republican governor was eagerly taunting his critics prior to politically anointing the results of his state GOP-controlled legislature. “I’m going home to sign a bill that places the Ten Commandments in public classrooms,” he said on June 16, 2024, as he headlined a Republican Party fundraiser in Nashville. “And I can’t wait to be sued.”
Other states including Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah have proposed in similar bills displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has until recently been successful in enacting such efforts. The truth is that legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in the nation’s classrooms are not a new phenomenon. In Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980), the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law that required the posting of the Ten Commandments, purchased through private donations, in every public school classroom in the state.
