Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry fights for prayer in public schools and he said at the Louisiana Family Forum gala in Baton Rouge: "With your prayers, and an offense, we will get prayer back in public schools." The Family Forum is one of the state's largest and most influential conservative Christian organizations.
In several cases over the past 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has found government-sponsored prayer in public schools to be unconstitutional. Still, the Constitution protects the rights of students and faculty members to engage in personal prayer at school events if they desire.
A decade ago, the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of a private individual, launched a series of lawsuits against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for school-sponsored prayers at school events, including football games and School board meetings. Sabine Parish came under fire in 2014 from the parents of a Buddhist student who said Christianity was being pushed in a local public school. Both parishes settled their disputes and adjusted their behavior so as not to promote prayer in public schools.
Landry said he was encouraged recently by a court ruling that a Michigan county board may open its meetings with a Christian prayer and invite audience members to join. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati rejected assertions that the prayers violated the Constitution. The court concluded at the beginning of September that the county’s practice does not impermissibly endorse Christianity because it is possible that a non-Christian could one day be elected to the commission and then lead the board in the occasional non-Christian prayer. The attorney general hopes that means a shift in the way courts interpret prayer in other public places.
"I just want you to know that we are winning, and we will get God back into this country," Landry said.
Landry is also against legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people which he highlighted it in his remarks, without mentioning these labels. He said he would continue to protect Louisiana from "executive overreach," a reference to Gov. John Bel Edwards' executive order extending workplace protections to LGBT state employees. A court threw out the order at Landry's request, though the governor has appealed the decision.
Landry brought a large painting to the Family Forum gala which normally hangs in the Louisiana Department of Justice offices and it was placed now on the stage at The Church, the name of the congregation where Thursday night's gala was held. "In the center of that painting is Moses because he was our first law giver," Landry said. "Everyone who walks through your Department of Justice here in the state of Louisiana has an opportunity to see who we know was our first law giver."
Photo Credits: Wikimedia
