Hours after Louisiana's Republican governor signed legislation Wednesday requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools and universities, civil rights groups, including the ACLU, made preparations to challenge the new law.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 during a news conference, touting it and several other pieces of legislation focused on education as necessary reforms to "bring common sense back to our classrooms."
The law, passed by the GOP-controlled legislature, requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in a "large, easily readable font."
"If you want to respect the rule of law, you've got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses," the governor said, the Associated Press reported.
Civil rights groups - from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Americans United for Separation of Church and State - said they would contest the law, arguing that it violates "long standing Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment."
"The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional. The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government," the groups said in a joint statement.
"Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools," it added.
They said the state's public schools have a diverse group of students but the law "would require school officials to promote specific religious beliefs to which people of many faiths, and those of no faith, do not subscribe."
Landry, who praised the law as a win for conservatives in the state, welcomed the legal challenges.
"I can't wait to be sued," Landry said at a fundraiser over the weekend, NOLA reported.
