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PBS News Hour - Segments

Louisiana's Ten Commandments law raises new concerns over separation of church and state

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2024

⏱️ 6 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Louisiana will now require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom. Similar bills have been proposed in Texas, Oklahoma and Utah, raising questions about the constitutional separation of church and state. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation promoting First Amendment freedoms. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Transcript

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0:00.0

Louisiana will now require the 10 Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom,

0:06.0

the only state in the country to do so.

0:09.0

The state's Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill into law yesterday.

0:13.4

This bill mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom in public, elementary,

0:20.2

secondary, and post-education schools in the state of Louisiana.

0:24.4

Thank you.

0:27.0

Because if you want to respect the rule of law you got to start from the original

0:36.5

law giver which was Moses.

0:40.0

Under the law the posters must be no smaller than 11 by 14 inches and the

0:44.3

Commandments must be the central focus of the poster and in a large easily

0:49.2

readable font they would be paid for through private donations, not state funds.

0:54.0

It comes as similar bills have been proposed in Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah.

0:58.0

All of this raising questions about the constitutional separation of church and state, with civil liberty groups pledging to sue.

1:05.7

We're joined now by Charles Hayne, Senior Fellow for Religious Liberty at the Freedom Forum, that's

1:10.2

a nonpartisan foundation promoting First Amendment freedoms.

1:13.3

Thanks so much for being here.

1:14.3

Thanks for having me.

1:15.3

Good to hear.

1:16.3

So Governor Landry said he cannot wait to be sued.

1:19.3

Does he have reason to feel confident given the changing composition of the court?

1:24.6

He's confident, he will be sued.

1:27.2

He can be sure of that.

...

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