Republican-led Louisiana has become the first US state to compel public schools to display a post of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
According to the BBC, civil rights groups are expected to challenge the new ruling on the grounds that it contravenes the separation of church and state enshrined in the first amendment to the US Constitution, the so-called Establishment Clause.
The clause reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The Republican-backed measure signed into law by Governor Jeff Landry this week describes the commandments as “the foundational documents of our state and national government”.
The state law requires that a poster include the sacred text in “large, easily readable font” on a poster that is 28cm by 35.5cm and that the commandments are “the central focus” of the display.
It will also be shown alongside a four-paragraph “context statement” which will describe how the commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries”.
The BBC reports that similar laws have recently been proposed by other Republican-led states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah.
In 1980, the US Supreme Court struck down a similar Kentucky law requiring that the Christian code be displayed in elementary and high schools.
In a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that the requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature”.