Louisiana Messes Up Commandments in School Law

There are supposed to be 10 commandments, traditionally. But Louisiana's controversial new law adds an extra. House Bill 71, which was signed into law, and immediately challenged legally for violating the United States Constitution, appears to add an extra commandment to the list.

Before we get too deep, we should point out that Louisiana is not the first state to require biblical commandments inside schools. There are far too many news stories making this claim, when its very easy to debunk. The US Supreme Court has already ruled against the concept, because other states have done it. The case Stone v Graham was the latest, when the state of Kentucky required the commandments to be posted in schools. Which would obviously put Kentucky before Louisiana, just on the surface.

That law was struck down because it directly violated the Constitution's Establishment Clause in the First Amendment. As described by Britannica, the Establishment Clause: "...prevents the passage of any law that gives preference to or forces belief in any one religion."

Back to Louisiana's 11 commandments...

For some, this will come off as a simple typo; but for many experts, they are labeling this as a "hastily" made mistake. The writing of these commandments has caught national attention for the mistake.

According to scripture, as written in Exodus 20, the commandments are:

1 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.

2 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

4 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

5 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

6 “You shall not murder.

7 “You shall not commit adultery.

8 “You shall not steal.

9 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

That's 10...but Louisiana added one more in their bill. Well, they split one into two. The traditional 10th commandment is written as two in House Bill 71, creating an 11th line:

The text shall read as follows:

"The Ten Commandments

I AM the LORD thy God.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.

Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."

So line-by-line, it's 11 commandments. Where the 10th should read as one, the text copy of the law splits it into two. For an example, under the "honor they mother and father" commandment, the extended sentence carries all the way to the end of the line of text before jumping to line 26 of that page for the remainder of the commandment. However in their 10th and 11th commandments, the text does not carry to the end of the line, it breaks immediately after the word "house" and creates a new commandment as it jumps to the next line.

Typo, hasty mistake, or whole new commandment...it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, House Bill 71 calls for 11 commandments to be posted in schools.