Louisiana has passed a law requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, a new development in a longtime public policy controversy that has surfaced in Alabama repeatedly over more than two decades.

Alabama does not have the same law as the one Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed into effect on Wednesday, legislation that won praise from former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who has championed Ten Commandments displays during his political career.

But Alabama voters did show strong support of Ten Commandments displays when they approved an amendment to the state constitution in 2018. Seventy-two percent of those who voted supported the measure, which is Amendment 942 to the Alabama Constitution.

The amendment said public schools and public bodies can display the Ten Commandments on property owned by the state. It added this qualifying language:

“The Ten Commandments shall be displayed in a manner that complies with constitutional requirements, including, but not limited to, being intermingled with historical or educational items, or both, in a larger display within or on property owned or administrated by a public school or public body.”

The amendment also says: “No public funds may be expended in defense of the constitutionality of this amendment.”

Former state Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, sponsored the bill to put the amendment on the ballot.

Dial, who left the Legislature in 2018 after 10 terms, said he does not know what schools or public entities posted the Ten Commandments after voters approved the amendment. Dial said he distributed laminated copies of the Ten Commandments to schools but is not sure whether they were used.

As for Louisiana’s approach, Dial said there were concerns in Alabama about the legal costs that could have resulted from mandating Ten Commandments displays.

“We tried to go down that road to a degree,” Dial said. “But then we were warned by all the legal scholars that it would be unconstitutional and it would just cost the state a lot of money to go all the way to the Supreme Court. And what I was doing was the most practical and easiest way and it would leave it up to the school boards and city managers and governmental officials to decide whether they wanted to put it up or not.”

Dial, noting that he is not a lawyer, said he’s uncertain how the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court would rule on a challenge to the new Louisiana law and whether the principal of separation of church and state would result in blocking the law. Several groups have already said they plan to sue to block the Louisiana law.

Dial believes there would be benefits to Ten Commandments displays in public schools because of the influence it could have on students, even if that’s a small number of students, especially in an era of concern over gun violence and school shootings.

“If it keeps one person from doing something, or if it changes one person’s life, it’s worth the effort,” Dial said. “What we seem to in America to have gotten away from is that one life is valuable. We’ve come almost to the point where, well, first thing on the news is somebody killed. That’s just tough luck. That’s just to be expected.”

“If this helps to reinstall the value of what a human life or what human beings should be and how we should treat our neighbors, then it’s worth the effort,” Dial said.