(NewsNation) — One of the Louisiana state lawmakers who co-sponsored the bill mandating the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom says it’s about teaching morals, not religion.
“We believe it’s constitutional, and we are ready and waiting for the lawsuit,” said Republican state Rep. Lauren Ventrella.
“The Supreme Court has now stated that we must look at the historical context of the document … as long as the state is not coercing or forcing religion on its citizens — which we’re not in this case,” she told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Thursday.
Under the new law, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities in Louisiana will be required to display a poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” next year.
The new law also authorizes, but does not mandate, the display of other historical documents, including The Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance, which created a pathway for admitting new states into the union.
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses,” who, Scripture says, got the commandments from God, according to Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
Civil liberties groups planned lawsuits to block the law, saying it would unconstitutionally breach protections against government-imposed religion.
“We’re going to be seeing Gov. Landry in court,” said Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the Constitution’s clause that says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the Kentucky law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
In its most recent rulings on Ten Commandments displays, the Supreme Court held in 2005 that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, however, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin.
“This is a new law,” Ventrella said. “We’re first in the nation to do this. We’re blazing the trail, and we are ready for the fight.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report