More like the Establishment Guideline...

So there was a time, like, in the 1970's where it was illegal to advertise to children on television, but then Reagan came along and ruined everything. I mean that, everything. Want to see the exact moment that the former star of Bedtime for Bonzo made sure that Boomers would be the last generation with a decent shot at retirement? Here it is:

It's been like, forty-three years and everything is terrible
so could we like, maybe come up with a new plan?

If you don't teach your kids about the
Cybertronian Wars, who will? The schools? 

Ok, that was the trickle down speech, but he also lifted the regulations on advertising at children, opening the door to those cartoons we were all raised on. Do you remember The Transformers, and The Care Bears fondly? Sure, me too. Did you know that they were thinly-veiled, half-hour toy commercials? You did? It's common knowledge? Ok, but my point is that regulations were there for a reason. Kids are impressionable and can't necessarily distinguish between useful information and advertising. 

"The Establishment Clause only applies
other people's religions, and 'well-regulated
militia' means whatever we say it does."

-Conservatives

Which is why I find this argument for the Louisiana Law requiring the Ten Commandments in school so...what's the word? Cockamamie? Poppycockfull? Horseshit. It's horseshit. What law? What argument? Settle down. The Law is H.B. 71 and it requires that schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. But doesn't that violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment? Of course it does. It absolutely does. But the proponents argument is two-fold: first: it's an historical document. Second: we have a super-majority, so shut up.

The Northwest Ordinance also prohibited slavery,
but that didn't stop Louisiana from seceding, so...

But lots of things are historical documents. The Declaration of Independence, The Mayflower Compact, and the Northwest Ordinance to name three. Why those three? Because the law also authorizes, but doesn't require those document to be displayed as well. Why those? If I were to guess: the Declaration of Independence because America. The Mayflower Compact because white people. And the Northwest Ordinance because it contains a stipulation about encouraging religion. 

Don't believe me? Well then check out
this photography from 1445 B.C. of Moses.
What's that his his hand? Exactly. Fact.

And yes, it was written before the First Amendment which specifically says "no state religions allowed." Which, according to the 1947 case Everson v. Board of Education, applies to state and local governments. The argument the laws sponsors are trying to use on the people of Louisiana is that as an historical document, the Ten Commandments aren't an example of the state promoting a religion, but instead just the schools educating kids on the laws God definitely handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai thirty-five hundred years ago.

The law also requires Louisiana residents
to house 18th century British soldiers in
a clear violation of the Third Amendment.

Opponents, which include agnostics, atheists, members of any of the world's other religions (including all the Christian denominations that don't think their narrow interpretation should be foisted on everyone else), as well as every single civil liberties organization in the U.S., point out that this is a clear and willful violation of the First Amendment, you know, the right's second favorite amendment? I mean, the first commandment is God specifically saying I am your God, all other gods are dumb and total nonsense. All of which sounds sounds pretty establish-y, so what are we even doing here?

They built an idol of him.
They literally idolize him.

But I guess the thing that I find the most frustrating is that they know this is horseshit. They know the law violates the First Amendment, and they know they'll be sued, and that they've got nothing to lose. If, god forbid, they win (after all, the walking, rambling example of the opposite of virtually every one of the commandments, got to appoint three Supreme Court Justices in his single, disastrous term as president), they'll be the party that brought church back into state. If they lose, they're the plucky underdogs standing up for what's white--sorry, what's right. 

It's performative faith and they're wasting everybody's time with it in an attempt to appeal to white evangelical voters. Speaking of, HB 71 is part of Governor Jeff Landry's "Dream Big Education Plan" which also includes a bill lifting vaccine requirements, an anti-trans law, and a new don't say gay bill. Remind me why we let Louisiana back into the Union?

If their religious worldview is so fragile that they need to pass laws
enforcing them, maybe their faith isn't that, you know, solid?