House Bill 71

Louisiana House Bill 71 (H.B. 71) is a law passed by the Louisiana State Legislature and signed by Governor Jeff Landry in 2024 that directs schools to display a copy of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

House Bill 71
The Great Seal of the State of Louisiana
Louisiana State Legislature
Citation	H.B. 71
Enacted by	Louisiana House of Representatives
Enacted by	Louisiana State Senate
Signed by	Governor Jeff Landry
Signed	June 19, 2024
Effective	January 1, 2025
First chamber: Louisiana House of Representatives
Bill citation	House Bill No. 71
Introduced by	Dodie Horton
Summary
To enact R.S. 17:2122 and 3996(B)(82), relative to public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools; to provide for the display of certain historical documents; to provide for the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Ten Commandments; to provide for displays in each classroom; to provide relative to the use of donations or the acceptance of donated displays for this purpose; to provide for applicability; to provide for legislative intent; to provide for historical context; to provide for an effective date; and to provide for related matters.
Status: In force

Background

In its 1980 decision Stone v. Graham, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky statute requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms across the state violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, noting that the Ten Commandments were not fully secular, and thus violated the separation of church and state.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Van Orden v. Perry that a display of the Ten Commandments at the Texas State Capitol was constitutional on the grounds that it was an acknowledgement of the secular role of religion in American history. However, on the same day Van Orden was decided, the Supreme Court also ruled in McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union that displaying the Ten Commandments in courthouses and public schools was unconstitutional, on the grounds that such display had the intent of advancing a religious message.

Louisiana State Representative Dodie Horton introduced the bill to the Louisiana House of Representatives, describing the Ten Commandments as the basis of all laws. After passing the Committee on Education in a 10-3 vote, the bill was signed into law by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry on June 19, 2024.

Before the passage of House Bill 71, similar bills were introduced in other states, such as South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas. The passage of House Bill 71 follows other laws in Louisiana regulating education, including a law allowing chaplains to be employed by public schools, and a law requiring transgender students to be referred to using the pronouns aligned to their sex assigned at birth. Horton herself, a Southern Baptist, has introduced other bills similarly requiring the display of text in classrooms, including a law in 2023 requiring the display of the national motto, "In God We Trust", in classrooms.

Content

The law mandates that by January 1, 2025, all state-funded school classrooms in Louisiana must have "a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches" with a King James Bible version of the Ten Commandments as the display's "central focus", in a "large, easily readable font". The display will also include a "context statement" explaining the Ten Commandments' role in American education and government. Additionally, the law allows for the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Declaration of Independence in conjunction with the Ten Commandments, but does not require their display. The law does not provide state funding for the posters, instead relying on donations.

Reactions

House Bill 71 has faced both praise and criticism since its passing.

Politicians

The Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, stated that he would pass a similar bill requiring the Ten Commandments in schools in the next legislative session, known as Senate Bill 1515. He criticized Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives Dade Phelan for failing to put the bill to a vote on the floor in the last legislative session on X. Presumptive 2024 Republican nominee for president and former president of the United States Donald Trump similarly endorsed the law, both in a speech to evangelical Christians on June 22, 2024, as well as in a post on Truth Social. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson similarly endorsed the law, stating that he expected it to survive legal challenges.

Other politicians have criticized the legislation; in particular, Democratic Louisiana Senate member Royce Duplessis called the lawmakers supporting the legislation "hypocritical".

Lawsuit

Immediately after the bill was signed, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced that they would be suing the state of Louisiana over the new law. Indeed, on June 24, 2024, the groups, along with the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana known as Roake vs. Brumley, representing parents of Louisiana public school children against Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and five school boards, seeking both a preliminary injunction and to declare the law unconsistutional.