Chief Justice Renquist Opinion - Separation of Church and State

Chief Justice William Rehnquist said: "there is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation. ... 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, and it should be frankly and explicitly abandoned. ... History must judge whether it was the Father of our country, Washington, plus the majority of the House of Representatives and the Senate who were correct in their understanding of the First Amendment, or whether it is a majority of the Court today." Justice Byron White said he completely agreed, and therefore they should re-look at all of the cases dealing with the matter of separation of church and state and deal with them all over again in the light of what was intended.

Learn more about the First Amendment by reading The Four Freedoms of the First Amendment.