In 2024, Louisiana enacted a law requiring all public schools to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Last year, Texas and Arkansas did the same, and legislators in other states are working on similar bills. The three existing laws have each been challenged in court; so far two of them, in Louisiana and Texas, have been allowed to take effect.
The laws differ as to whether they require an explanatory text to be included with the Ten Commandments—Louisiana does, while Texas and Arkansas do not—but they agree on one crucial detail: the specific version of the Ten Commandments that should be posted. All three laws draw their text from a monument erected on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1961.
The origins of the monument’s Ten Commandments text are complex. Just five years earlier, Cecil B. DeMille’s film The Ten Commandments had burst onto the scene as the highest-grossing movie that year and, adjusted for inflation, one of the biggest hits of all time. To promote the film, DeMille teamed up with Minnesota judge E. J. Ruegemer to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments around the country. Ruegemer had been promoting the posting of the Ten Commandments since the 1940s as a means of combating juvenile delinquency, and DeMille saw a commonality of purpose, if not of motivation.
