Governor To Students: ‘Look The Other Way’ If You’re Bothered By Mandated Posting Of Ten Commandments In Public Schools

We fought a revolution for this?!?

This is the new America: a loose confederacy (yes, I'm using that correctly [and pointedly]) of states that desire to see us returned to the harsh reality our founding fathers (and colonists before them) left their homelands to escape. The shift of the so-called conservative movement" to the extreme right has created a disturbingly large subset of state legislators and governors who seem to truly desire a return to the heady days of our pre-Revolution past.

The future of the Republican party under Trump (or any of his favored toadies) is a blend of theocracy and autocracy. Trump is more partial to the autocratic aspects, but has proven willing to ingratiate himself with theocracy superfans - supposed Christians willing to see past his narcissistic nihilism as long as their own bigotry and hatred is catered to.

That's why this country is inundated with laws that seek to forbid social media companies from ejecting the more nauseous of so-called conservative" mouthpieces. That's why multiple states have passed laws targeting LGBTQ+ people. That's why legislators think now is the time to give cops more rights. That's why several states gleefully greeted the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade with trigger laws that immediately eliminated long-held reproductive rights, even though most residents of these states never pushed for these trigger laws to be written in the first place. And that's why we have law enforcement officers blundering into school classrooms and public libraries to find content they somehow believe is against the law.

All of the above applies to Louisiana. That's why Louisiana has decided to reject a couple hundred years of precedent to add more church to its state. In late June, Governor Jeff Landry decided it was a good idea to make this an actual thing in one state of the United States of America.

Under the new law, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to display a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments in large, easily readable font" next year.

Yeah, that's not what we do here. (To date, it still is. Louisiana is [at press time! things could change!] the only state with a law like this on the books.) Separation of church and state has been a key aspect of this nation since its formation because the lack of this separation in England was the impetus for colonization of America, which led to its eventual overthrow of its British overseers.

Flash-forward to 2024 and somehow everything that was old and summarily rejected by this new nation is now cool and good.

While we've all seen plenty of performative laws enacted in recent years, there are few that reach this level of showmanship. And if you're wondering why I've dragged Donald Trump into this (this means you, disingenuous commenters who seem to think my Trump-bashing is egregious and off-target), let's just let the law, the legislators, and the Associated Press journalists speak for themselves:

Lawmakers backing the bill said during debate in May that the posters or funds to print them will likely be donated to schools in this deep Bible Belt state. Nationwide praise for the law from conservative groups and figures including, most recently,former President Donald Trump, could result in outside financial support for the mandate.

Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian conservative organization, has already created a page on its website for donations that will be used specifically for the purpose of producing and distributing 10 Commandments' displays to educational institutions around Louisiana."

But the question of what happens if a school doesn't receive enough donations has lingered for months with little clarity.

So schools have the ability to raise the funds or they (the posters) can be donated. But, what if you can't raise the funds or find a donor?" state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who voted against the law, asked duringdebate on the legislation last month.

I don't know what happens then," replied state Sen. Adam Bass, a Republican who co-authored the law.

Did you get all that? The law is praised by people (like Donald Trump) for being a good thing for America, even though no other state has imposed this same demand on their public schools. The mandate does not demand schools pay for these posters, suggesting instead the mandate will be complied with thanks to the help of donors" who care so much about imposing their preferred religion on elementary school students, they'll ensure no school suffers the negative outcomes of failing to comply with the new law.

But if the funding fails to appear and/or the school refuses to post the Ten Commandments, the punishments will include any portion of the following: I don't know what happens then." And those are the words of one of the legislators who wrote the law.

So, there's nothing in the law that would allow the state to enforce it. That is the very definition of performative." It makes dumb fucks like Trump stand up and holler but the law has no teeth, no value, and very few school administrators expressing their support for the mandate. The AP asked 55 schools for comment and received only two responses in favor of it. The rest of the schools made no comment. But the two supporting respondents are already outnumbered by the school officials willing to go on record as opposed to law and unwilling to punish any failure" to plaster classroom walls with the state's preferred religious beliefs.

And, of course, the law has already been hit with multiple lawsuits. It's an easy win, given that it violates a very clear delineation of church and state that has been recognized by all courts everywhere for most of this country's history.

But the state won't let it go. Here's the literally unbelievable response offered by state attorney general Liz Murrill, who is the person tasked with defending the law against these constitutional challenges. The first thing Murrill does is get the law wrong:

As kids in Louisiana prepare to return to school this month, state officials presented large examples of posters featuring the Ten Commandments that Attorney General Liz Murrill argues constitutionally comply with the law." The Republican said she is not aware of any school districts that have begun to implement the mandate, as the posters haven't been produced yet."

Murrill said the court brief being filed, which was not immediately available, argues that the lawsuit is premature and the plaintiffs cannot prove that they have any actual injury."

I sincerely hope I'm not the first person to tell you this, Liz, but actual injury" is not the legal standard in lawsuits like these. The potential for actual injury is enough to move these lawsuits forward. And it's often more than enough to obtain, at the very least, a temporary injunction blocking the law from being enforced. And if the state can't convince a court this incursion on constitutional rights is justified by a legitimate government function, the potential for harm can be enough to obtain a permanent injunction.

But that's not even the stupidest thing that's been said by Louisiana state officials about this law. This is the stupidest. And it fell right out of the mouth of none other than the governor himself, Jeff Landry:

When asked what he would say to parents who are upset about the Ten Commandments being displayed in their child's classroom, the governor replied: If those posters are in school and they (parents) find them so vulgar, just tell the child not to look at it."

Oh. DO TELL. Let me know how that works out. Is it your firm belief that anyone who doesn't like constitutional violations should just look the other way when they occur? What are you? A cop?

And is this really the stance you want to take? I mean, I don't recall you telling semi-pro busybodies who think it's their personal duty to rid libraries of expression they don't like to simply not look at" books they personally find offensive. I certainly haven't heard any of your ilk telling people offended by things they see on the TV to just change the channel. No one aligned with your perverse view of church-state separation has ever told anyone raising a complaint about drag shows to just steer clear of these events.

That's a clearly ludicrous suggestion. Gov. Landry is one of those people who thinks he should be able to force others to live by his personal moral standards. If you told him to just not look at" things he finds sinful or offensive, he would tell you he's abdicating his responsibility as a government leader, parent, member of society, or whatever. But when it's a shit law he's particularly fond of, he's more than willing to tell people to ignore things they disagree with. And while it might be a good idea to do that when the stakes are low and it's nothing more than subjective opinions in play, it's makes absolutely no sense to pretend that's an acceptable way to handle a clear constitutional violation.

These responses make it exceedingly clear that these are not serious people. They are not capable nor willing to provide actual leadership and/or do what's best for all state residents. They only appear interested in catering to the basest members of their voter base: the people who are only happy when they're making other people miserable while pretending they hold the moral high ground.