Chief Justice William Rehnquist - Wall of Separation

In Rehnquist's dissent in the case of Wallace v. Jaffree; 472 U.S. 38, 107 (1984), he summed up his feelings about our current use of Jefferson's metaphor "Wall of separation between church and state."

Whether due to its lack of historical support or its practical unworkability, the Everson "wall" has proved all but useless as a guide to sound constitutional adjudication. It illustrates only too well the wisdom of Benjamin Cardozo's observation that "[metaphors] in law are to be narrowly watched, for starting as devices to liberate thought, they end often by enslaving it." Berkey v. Third Avenue R. Co., 244 N. Y. 84, 94, 155 N. E. 58, 61 (1926).

But the greatest injury of the "wall" notion is its mischievous diversion of judges from the actual intentions of the drafters of the Bill of Rights. The "crucible of litigation," ante, at 52, is well adapted to adjudicating factual disputes on the basis of testimony presented in court, but no amount of repetition of historical errors in judicial opinions can make the errors true. The "wall of separation between church and State" is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned

See Touro Law

Textbooks Leave Out Religious Contributions to History

In the Alabama case Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County (1987), the subject of school text books and history books was discussed. Expert testimony was given that our public school text books today leave out many significant events because of their religious connection.

The virtually unanimous conclusion of the numerous witnesses, both expert and lay, party and non-party, was that textbooks in the fields examined were poor from an educational perspective. Mere rotten and inadequate textbooks, however, have not yet been determined to violate any constitutional provision, much less the religion clauses. The Court points this out to demonstrate the predicament confronting the people who must select textbooks. As to the history books, Dr. Smith and Dr. Vitz testified that all of them omitted numerous significant facts about religion and religious contributions to American history. Their expert opinion was that religion was so deliberately underemphasized and ignored that theistic religions were effectively discriminated against and made to seem irrelevant and unimportant within the context of American history. Some of the books were worse than others, according to Dr. Smith, but none were good. His opinion was that, except for one text, each of the books reviewed conveyed an historical picture biased against theistic religions.

See Excerpts from Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, 655 F.Supp. 939 (S.D. Ala. 1987)

John Quincy Adams - Christian Foundations of U.S. Government

John Quincy Adams gave his perspective on the influence of Christianity on our government.

"The Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth and laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."

(John Quincy Adams, 1837. An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport at their Request on the 61st Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence)

President William Jefferson Clinton on Separation of Church and State

Most of the quotes I use on this site are from the Founders, but consider the words of a more recent president (one who is not thought of as a right-wing conservative), taken from three different occasions:

"It appears that some school officials, teachers, and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either inappropriate or forbidden altogether in public schools; however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones." (July 13, 1995.)

"I want to say to you is that James Madison and Thomas Jefferson did not intend to drive a stake in the heart of religion and to drive it out of our public life. What they intended to do was to set up a system so that we could bring religion into our public life and into our private life without any of us telling the other what to do." (Presidential speech at James Madison High School. Vienna, VA.)

"Sometimes I think the environment in which we operate is entirely too secular. The fact that we have freedom of religion doesn't mean we need to try to have freedom from religion." ("President Sides with Religious Right on Tithing Case." The Morning Edition. Washington, D.C. National Public Radio. Sept. 24, 1994. Transcript #1444-12. Page 4.)

Jefferson Explains the First Amendment - Kentucky Resolutions

Thomas Jefferson's metaphor "separation of church and state" is often used to justify eliminating any religious actions or even recognition by and governing body. But if one looks at Jefferson's opinions and deeds, one will see that he believed, as did the Founders who wrote the First Amendment, that it provided a limitation only on the Federal Government (and even then, not the kind of limitations that we think we understand today). Consider Jefferson's own words in his draft of the Kentucky Resolutions:

"Resolved, That it is true as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that 'the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people;' and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the States or the people..."

I added the boldface to the above quote. Note that Jefferson is clearly saying that limits placed by the First Amendment are on the Federal Government, NOT the state (or by implication, local) governments.

See the Yale Law School Avalon Project, Draft of the Kentucky Resolutions: October - 1798