Freedom of Religion

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson said that the First Ammendment's freedom of religion was created to "create a wall of seperation between Church and State." This makes us different from other countries that have state-supported religion, such as Great Britain. There are two parts to the freedom of religion section of the First Ammendment, however, one part is the establishment clause, the other is the free exercise clause. The establishment clause states that "Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion." The free exercise clause states that "Congress cannot prohibit free exercise of religion."

There have been cases where the government has needed to step in between religious and state matters, because they could not be together. A court case, Everson v. Board of Education in 1947, the state was paying for buses to take children to religious schools, it was said that the state was supporting religion by doing this. The court ruled in favor of the school, because the students were being benefitted by this, so the state was not directly supporting religion. Since 1971, the courts have used a three part test that decides if state aid to a religious school is constitutional.

(1) "Must have a clear secular, non-religious purpose."

(2) "in its main effect neither advance nor inhibit religion."

(3) "avoid 'exsessive government entanglement with religion'."

In 1948, Champaign, Illinois, Public Schools had religion teachers came in every week to teach certain students about religion. The Court found this unconstitutional because they were using tax-supported classrooms for religious purposes. Although, 4 years later, the Court accepted a New York City program where religious teachers taught religion to students, but only if it was away from the public school. It was constitutional if the religious study was held in a private facility, not a public one.

Religion and state cannot mix according to our First Ammendment, but it would seem that it is hard to tell what is mixing the two, and what isn't.