Louisiana has a new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom. In a recent post, the question is asked (and answered).
Hasn’t the US Supreme Court already ruled that this kind of thing is blatantly unconstitutional?
Of course, it has.
This might be more than a tad ironic because that very post bemoans that Supreme Court justices have strayed from the original understanding of various constitutional provisions. (It is unclear (to me) if the author believes the Constitution, properly interpreted, prohibits the Louisiana law.)
The Bill of Rights, which contains the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause, was originally understood to apply ONLY to the Federal government. It was originally understood to allow States to promote religion and, indeed, to favor one religion over other religions. The Establishment Clause was not applied by the Supreme Court to States until 1947, via a judicially invented doctrine called “incorporation.”
