Donald Trump declared his “love” for the Ten Commandments and called for them to be displayed in schools and “many other places” in an all-caps, late-night post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
His post came after Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed legislation this week that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in the state, a move that will be challenged in court. Elementary, middle and high schools, as well as public colleges, must all display posters no smaller than 11 by 14 inches and the commandments must be “the central focus of the poster” and “in a large, easily readable font,” the law states.
Louisiana is the only state in the country with such a requirement — but Trump suggested he’d like to see that changed.
“I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG??? THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY. BRING BACK TTC!!! MAGA2024,” Trump wrote in the early hours of Friday.
Trump, however, has been accused of breaking the 7th Commandment, which forbids adultery. He was accused of having an affair with Stormy Daniels and was convicted in New York of 34 felonies to make hush money payments to keep it secret.
On Friday, the federal judge presiding over Trump’s classified documents case in Florida is hearing arguments on a long-shot defense effort to get the indictment thrown out. It is the latest update in the slew of court cases facing the former president.
He is also facing state and federal cases in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results which he has falsely claimed was stolen from him. Trump has denied all the charges against him.
The Louisiana law has been backed by Trump, who has growing support among Christian conservatives, with 84 percent of white evangelicals backing him in 2020, compared to 77 percent in 2016, according to Pew Research.
However, the legislation also has been heavily criticized with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State group planning to sue.
“We’re going to be seeing Gov. Landry in court,” Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said on Wednesday.
She added that the organization is “worried” about public school families and students in Louisiana.
“They come from a variety of different traditions and backgrounds, different religious beliefs, nonreligious beliefs and students in those classrooms will be made to feel like outsiders when they see the government endorsing one set of narrow religious beliefs over others.”
Landry previously said at a GOP fundraiser in Tennessee that he “can’t wait to be sued” over the law.
The new legislation is part of an effort by conservative legal groups to reverse Supreme Court rulings protecting the separation of church and state after justices shot down a similar state law in Kentucky more than 30 years ago, on the grounds that the state violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against any laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”
In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the public display of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky county courthouses was similarly unconstitutional.
