Snipers Hide Bans Politics

[cory]

I'll agree with Nukes and you both on this one…I was schooled by my in-law on the 1st Amendment back in '85…and I've studied the origins of the first two amendments quite a bit since. I have a copy of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (in response to their letter to him) which features the first known usage of the phrase "wall of separation between church and state" in context of the 1A (and used as the basis of the SCOTUS ruling in 1947 in Everson v Board of Education).

Historically, several of the individual states practiced "establishment" of religions; and several states discriminated against certain denominations within their state (even after the Republic was formed). What was "verboten" was the Federal government establishing and discriminating…

As Bwaites said, there has been a lot of mis-interpreting of the 1A…unfortunately, this was propagated by Justice Black in the 1947 case which is where the non-sense started placing restrictions on prayer in school, etc.

The clear intent of the establishment clause was to keep the federal government (i.e. Congress) from passing a law that would establish a "Church of America" (similar to the Church of England which is what concerned the Danbury Baptists, since Thomas Jefferson was an Episcopalian) to the detriment of other denominations.



However much I like Jefferson, particularly his quotes on the 1A and 2A, I like to remind folks that he did not directly participate in the Constitutional Convention as he was busy in France. That is not to say he wasn't influential, particularly his hand in the State of Virginia's constitution which was referenced at the Constitutional Conventioneers...

Well said, but you did leave out the part where Freedom of Religion was in large part about preventing a religion from gaining a strong arm on the American government like the Pope did to Europe for several centuries.