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| -Land of the Free |
| Jewish parents join suit challenging Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in schools |
| 2024-06-27 |
| [IsraelTimes] Lawsuit argues that last week’s law violates the First Amendment, and some Jews feel that while rooted in the Bible, the statutes as presented push Christian values on kids. Three Jewish families are among a group of nine Louisiana families with children in public schools who have filed a suit in federal court challenging a new state law that requires the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms. The lawsuit — filed on the families’ behalf by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation — argues that the law enacted last week violates the First Amendment. Specifically, the complaint says that the language of the law “Approves and Prescribes One Particular Version of the Ten Commandments, to Which Many People Do Not Subscribe,” violating the Constitution’s prohibitions on establishing an official religion and prohibiting free exercise of religion. The lawsuit has longstanding precedent on its side: In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky state law mandating the Ten Commandments in all classrooms was unconstitutional. But Christian culture warriors, emboldened by the recent arrival of a solidly conservative majority on the court, see an opportunity to have that ruling, Stone v. Graham, overturned. Now, similar bills have been proposed recently in state houses in Texas, Utah and Oklahoma. None has yet passed, although Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick pledged days ago that he would make it happen. Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, is the first to sign such a law, doing so last week as part of a slate of legislation against abortion rights and transgender inclusion that he said reflected his values as a Catholic. Jewish families have played leading roles in religious liberty lawsuits challenging recent legislation by conservative state legislatures. Rabbis in a number of states have sued to block restrictions on abortion, for example, arguing that they are based in Christianity and violate the separation of church and state. The Ten Commandments, given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai in the biblical book of Exodus (and repeated with slight variations elsewhere in the Bible), are revered by both Jews and Christians. But like the abortion lawsuits, the Louisiana lawsuit argues that the text of the Ten Commandments mandated by the law is a Christian version and “does not match any version or translation found in the Jewish tradition.” |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #11 Guys this is not how you win hearts and minds from the river to the sea... |
| Posted by: Regular+joe 2024-06-27 19:35 |
| #10 personally, jpal, I prefer not to have my head cut off. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2024-06-27 13:57 |
| #9 What would really solve this problem would be getting gummint out of education. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-06-27 12:34 |
| #8 The world would be a better place if people practiced their religions, Christian and Muslim alike, at home and left the rest of alone. |
| Posted by: jpal 2024-06-27 12:24 |
| #7 Public roads Some baksheesh Phone keyb sux |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-06-27 10:39 |
| #6 Public schools have become huge soliciters of "private money," selling rights to put up basically billboards all over school property. Here in Florida there is a law being considered to control how much of that crap can be put along the public roafs in front of schools as it's become a distraction to drivers. So, privately funded TC display, especially if it comes with so baksheesh? No school board will pass it up. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-06-27 10:34 |
| #5 #2 - this law requires it to be privately funded IIUC |
| Posted by: Frank G 2024-06-27 10:20 |
| #4 OK, a little shark-jumping to start the morning: More than half the commandments are not religious in nature, but societal, that is how to co-exist with your fellows. As such, they should be reasonably allowed public support and display. The remainder, deponent knoweth not. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2024-06-27 09:56 |
| #3 “I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would…most graciously be pleas’d to dispose us all to do Justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves, with that Charity, humility & pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion & without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.” —Washington’s Circular Letter to the States, June 8, 1783 |
| Posted by: Huputle+Cherelet4131 2024-06-27 09:40 |
| #2 Previously courts have allowed 10 Commandment displays if they were privately funded. It also, by inference allows displays of Satan talking to young children if it is privately funded. This is publicly funded. Almost certainly the law will be voided by a District court. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2024-06-27 09:15 |
| #1 Leftard morons. The 10 commandments are from authorised edition (old testament). |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-06-27 01:38 |