The political commentariat are all aflutter over this week’s first presidential debate, with everybody speculating about which issue CNN’s debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash should start with. For President Biden, there are lots of possibilities: inflation, immigration, crime, Gaza and his age. But for Donald Trump, there’s really only one: the Ten Commandments. He practically begged for it.
One of the first statements in support of the new law signed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) requiring posting of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom came from Trump. “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER,” he posted in all caps on his Truth Social platform. “READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???”
That sets up the perfect way for Tapper or Bash to begin the debate. First question: “Do you support the Louisiana law which requires a poster of the Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom?” To which Trump will express his enthusiastic support.
Second question, the perfect follow-up: “For those of our viewers who may not exactly remember the Ten Commandments, could you please recite them for us?” Uh-oh! Now that would be worth the price of admission, because there’s no way Trump knows more than one or two of them by heart.
The third and most critical question: “OK, I understand you may not remember them all, so let me read them to you, one through 10, and you tell Americans watching tonight which ones you have obeyed.”
Bingo! Imagine that embarrassing moment. Trump won’t do it. Because he can’t do it.
As late-night comics were quick to point out, Trump might get credit for Number Four, “Honor Your Father and Mother,” but he fails most of the others. Number Eight: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” — a jury found him guilty of defaming E. Jean Carroll. Number Nine: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” — twenty-six women have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. Number Ten: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods” — another jury found him guilty of financial fraud. And there’s little evidence he pays much attention to Number Three: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath.”
However much fun comics had with Trump’s dismal record on the Ten Commandments, the real problem with the Louisiana law is that it’s a clear violation of the First Amendment’s religious freedom clause prohibiting the creation of any state religion — as the Supreme Court has already ruled.
Since 1947, the court has held that the prohibition against establishing a state religion applies to state governments, not just to the federal government. In 1980, the court struck down as unconstitutional a Kentucky law that required posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom. And in 2005, the court ruled that two Kentucky counties unlawfully required posting the Ten Commandments in every courtroom.
Case settled? Not for Gov. Landry. He knows that the law he signed has already been declared unconstitutional three times. But, as he told a Republican fundraising dinner four days after signing the bill, “I can’t wait to be sued.”
In other words, Louisiana’s Ten Commandments bill is not about kids or education. It’s about giving today’s ultra-conservative Supreme Court another opportunity to destroy the separation of church and state and advance the cause of Christian nationalism.
Meanwhile, there’s always the example of Donald Trump to remind us: What’s important about the Ten Commandments is not posting them, but obeying them.
Bill Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”
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