House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Wednesday he supports Louisiana’s new law mandating the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, saying he thinks the law will survive legal challenges.
“I’m supportive of it, yeah,” Johnson told reporters, according to The Hill. “And I think it should pass court muster. I think there’s a number of states trying to look to do the same thing, and I don’t think it’s offensive in any way. I think it’s a positive thing.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry last week signed the bill into law. It requires that the Ten Commandments be visible on a poster-size display in "large, easily readable font."
The law applies in all public classrooms from kindergarten to university. These displays would be required in all classrooms beginning in early 2025, and will also include a "context statement" describing how the Commandments were "prominent" in US public school education "for almost three centuries."
The bill is the first to pass, though similar bills have been put forward in Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and other states.
The new law instantly prompted legal challenges, as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), along with other civil liberties groups, filed a lawsuit on behalf of families from different religious backgrounds, arguing the new law violates their First Amendment rights.
A group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools, among them three Jewish families, joined the suit against the legislation.
Johnson said on Wednesday he used to litigate similar cases, and added he expects the case ultimately to make its way to the Supreme Court, where he expects the ACLU to ultimately fail.
He pointed to a similar case from the 1980s, Marsh v. Chambers, in which the court upheld the practice of starting legislative session with a legislative prayer, noting it “is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of our country.”
“I think this Court is open to effectively affirming what the court did in the early ’80s, with Marsh v. Chambers and other cases like that. So we’ll see how it turns out. But yeah, I’m supportive of it,” Johnson said.