Comments from Attorneys David Gibbs III and Judge Darrel White on the Ten Commandments in the Schools
Recently I have written about the Ten Commandments being mandated in the public schools of Louisiana. I’m for it.
For this column I asked for comments from a couple of constitutional attorneys. One is David Gibbs III, the founder and president of the National Center for Life and Liberty. He provided me with this statement: “The Ten Commandments serve as the foundational principles of American law, and that is why they are etched in the stone above the Supreme Court. Allowing school children to be exposed to these historical documents is imperative to preserve culture and law for future generations. Schools can teach history without violating the constitution, and nations that forsake their heritage are doomed to forget their foundational principles upon which their continued success depends.” This came from a personal email from David to me on 6/21/24.
Another comment came from Judge Darrell White of the state of Louisiana, who said that the new law definitely passes constitutional muster: “Louisiana’s new 10 Commandments Law follows in the fine tradition of the majestic ‘Judicial Oath’ (28 USC 453) that dates back to 1789 and necessarily concludes ‘so help me, God.’ Every justice of the United States Supreme Court has taken that Oath before God. See ajatoday.com to learn the fascinating story about the Harlan Bible and how it has played a role in U.S. History.” This was from a personal email to Jerry Newcombe on 6/21/24.
Judge White noted that we should listen to the words of James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution. While this 1825 quote doesn’t directly mention the Ten Commandments, it has the same effect: “The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.”
Judge White also added this remark: “The quote I had mentioned and thought you might find useful comes from John Stormer’s book, None Dare Call It Education (page 81) in which he notes a warning issued in 1961 by the Elementary Textbook Evaluation Guide published in 1961 by the Textbook Study League, Inc. of San Gabriel, CA: ‘Withhold from the children for one generation the truth of “rights endowed by a creator” and our Constitution could be altered and our freedom could be voted away without citizens ever knowing the cause of their slavery.'”
