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Kentucky backing Louisiana law requiring displays of Ten Commandments in classrooms

FILE - A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
John Bazemore/AP
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AP
FILE - A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Kentucky is now part of an 18-state coalition supporting a Louisiana law mandating displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The matter has a connection to case law in Kentucky going back more than 40 years.

Earlier this year, the Louisiana legislature passed a bill requiring all public K-12 schools and state-funded universities to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms — a rule that was blocked from taking effect by a district court. It's now being appealed.

"We believe that there are numerous ways that this law can be applied constitutionally." Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.

The state's governor, Jeff Landry, is on record saying, "If those posters are in school and they find them so vulgar, just tell the child not to look at it."

And Kentucky is now weighing in on the side of Louisiana lawmakers.

The commonwealth's top law enforcement official, Republican Russell Coleman, is joining the multi-state coalition supporting Louisiana, arguing the Ten Commandments have held "historical significance for the foundation of the US legal system" and that the law in question would require a three-paragraph context statement on each display.

A similar Kentucky law was struck down by the US Supreme Court in 1980 and is now being cited by challengers in the Louisiana case.

Louisiana's law actually goes one step further., according to critics. The decades-old Kentucky law only required that some version of the commandments be posted, whereas challengers argue the Louisiana measure requires a version consistent with Protestant numbering system of the document.

While proponents say the displays are about historical significance and the importance of moral rules, Katherine Stewart, an investigative journalist who researches Christian nationalist movements, sees something more fundamental in play.

"The reason Christian nationalist leaders and activists are fighting for this law is because they know that symbolism matters. And it matters because it suggests that there's one group in society that is above all the rest," she told NPR.

In 2005, the Supreme Court considered the legality of Ten Commandments displays in two Kentucky courthouses and on the grounds of the Texas state capitol. In those instances, the high court decided against the courthouse displays but allowed the commandments monument in Texas.

Josh James fell in love with college radio at Western Kentucky University's student station, New Rock 92 (now Revolution 91.7). After working as a DJ and program director, he knew he wanted to come home to Lexington and try his hand in public radio.