deja vuhttp://forums.nicoclub.com/zer...75765HashiriyaS14 wrote:
Yay, time for some Constitutional Law!
I quoted Greg, but this is for the benefit of all, on both sides, as well as myself, as I had to do a little research to fill in some gaps in my own knowledge.
First and foremost, the words "Separation of Church and State" do NOT appear anywhere in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or really any other founding document save a famous letter written by Thomas Jefferson which is quite obviously NOT law.
All constitutional law rulings on "C&S" stem from either the "establishment clause" or the "free exercise" clause, which can at times seem to contradict one another, hence all the controversy.
The "establishment clause" of the First Ammendment reads as follows:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"
This being the first phrase in the First Ammendment.
In regards to legal precedent, this clause HAS been shown to limit things like prayer in schools, in that (again, in terms of legal precedent), the establishment clause effectively prohibits the Government from enacting any law or regulation upon the people that has it's grounding solely in religion without any other secular justification.
i.e., you can't have prayer in public schools funded by government money because said prayer would constitute an "establishment of religion" via a "law". It quite plainly is NOT something that has any further secular justification.
The "free exercise clause", which is the next phrase in the First Ammendment, reads as follows:
'or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (in regards to religion)
This means that the government cannot legally STOP anyone from exercising their religion so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of anyone else. This means that if YOU want to pray in school, they can't stop you, but they can't force the whole class to do it either (in grossly simplified terms).
One minor correction. The term "A Wall of Separation" was used in Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptist Associate because of their fear that the Government would start regulate/legislate religious expression. Thus it really was coined/applied to the Free Exercise Clause. But you are right, the term is not found in any founding documents and really was coined 'Separation of Church and State' much later and made famous by Justice Hugo Black.
