Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Governor Jeff Landry continue their defense of the state's new law requiring public schools and colleges to display the 10 Commandments in their classrooms.
Murrill says the federal lawsuit against that mandate is flawed in several ways.
"The plaintiffs cannot prove that they have any actual injury," Murrill said, noting that required 10 Commandments placards have not yet been installed in classrooms and won't be until January 2025.
Murrill also argues the law has a secular purpose despite the religious nature of the commandments. One of them, she says, is helping instill discipline in schools, an issue she claims lawmakers addressed by passing this law.
"They're frustrated with the inability of the whole system at this point to impose some rules of order," Murrill said of lawmakers and their constituents. "So they went back to one of the original lawmakers who imposed order, and they said maybe this will help, and it will at least help start a conversation about order and why rules matter and what the rule of law means."
Governor Jeff Landry piggybacked on that sentiment.
"The posters that will appear in schools (are) the decision of the legislature, which is the will of the people," Landry said. "I think we've forgotten in this country that democracy actually means majority rules. For some kind of way over the last two decades or so, for whatever reason, our government has flipped the script or our people have flipped the script. When you elect people, you elect them by majority. That majority gets to rule."
Landry had this advice for those who oppose the law.
"What I would say to those parents is: if those posters are in school and they find them so vulgar, just tell the child not to look at it."
Murrill says her office will file its formal response to the lawsuit in federal court Monday afternoon.
"My job is to illustrate that this law can be applied constitutionally," Murrill said.
