Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Wednesday that Kentucky is part of a multistate coalition in support of Louisiana’s law related to Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, and is joined by 17 other states in a filing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Earlier this year, Louisiana’s legislature passed a bill requiring all public K-12 schools and state-funded universities to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry in June. In November, a federal district court judge blocked the law from taking effect.
Louisiana’s law also requires a three-paragraph “context statement” to be part of every display, which provides examples of the Ten Commandments being “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
Coleman notes that throughout the history of the United States, the Ten Commandments have held historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system. The early legal code is even depicted in the U.S. Supreme Court and other prominent buildings in the Nation’s capital. Louisiana’s law acknowledges this history and allows a display that compares the Ten Commandments to other documents formative to contemporary American law, like Blackstone’s Commentaries and the Supreme Court’s Marbury v. Madison.
“From our founding documents to the establishment of the rule of law in the United States, the Ten Commandments’ influence on American history is undeniable,” Coleman said. “I am proud to support Attorney General Liz Murrill and Louisiana in the effort to preserve our shared history and educate future generations.”
The brief states in part, “The [Supreme] Court [previously] pointed out the obvious: Acknowledgements on public property of the role played by the Ten Commandments in our Nation’s heritage are common throughout America. In fact, the Court noted that the Ten Commandments are displayed several places in its own building … The Supreme Court’s building is no exception when compared to other government buildings in our Nation’s capital. The Supreme Court later affirmed that [in previous cases] no Member of the Court thought that these depictions of the Ten Commandments are unconstitutional.”
Coleman was joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
(Photo: KY Attorney General Russell Coleman)
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
