Louisiana governor ‘can’t wait to be sued’ after forcing the Ten Commandments in classrooms

Louisiana’s Republican Governor Jeff Landry is looking for a legal fight after mandating the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state.

“I’m going home to sign a bill that places the Ten Commandments in public classrooms,” he said during a recent GOP fundraiser in Tennessee. “I can’t wait to be sued.”

Landry signed the bill into law on Wednesday, making Louisiana thefirst state in the US to require all public schools and universities to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Conservative legal groups have been angling for another shot at reversing 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.

“Our public schools are not Sunday schools, and students of all faiths – or no faith – should feel welcome in them,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a joint statement with other civil rights groups warning against Louisiana’s legislation.

The measure requires all schools to display the text exactly as written in the bill, and in “a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches” – at minimum – and “in a large, easily readable font.”

It also requires a 200-word “context statement” arguing that the Ten Commandments were “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries” up until 50 years ago.

Last year, Louisiana’s GOP-controlled state legislature passed a similar measure that