Louisiana becomes first US state to demand Ten Commandments in schools

Governor of the US state of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, has signed into law a bill that makes the state the only one in America to require displaying the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.

Several rights groups on Wednesday immediately announced they would sue to block the law, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state and a US Supreme Court ruling.

Landry signed the bill along with a package of others he said were designed to "expand faith in public schools."

"If you want to respect the rule of law, you've got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses," Landry said at the signing ceremony.

In the Christian and Jewish faiths, it is believed that God revealed the Ten Commandments to Prophet Moses.

Civil rights group ACLU along with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced they would file a lawsuit to challenge the law that requires a specific text of the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed in all classrooms.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution prohibits government from the "establishment of religion," and in 1980 the US Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham that a Kentucky law on the posting of the Ten Commandments in school was unconstitutional.

The GOP also has a two-thirds supermajority in the Louisiana legislature.

Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda during the legislative session that concluded earlier this month.