The Relationship between Church and State in the United States

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The Relationship between Church and State in the
United States

• Elizabeth McLain
• Senior Capstone Presentation

2
The First Amendment

• Congress shall make no law respecting an
  establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
  free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom
  of speech, or of the press or the right of the
  people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
  government for a redress of grievances

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Religion Clauses

• Establishment of religion
• Free exercise

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The Founders

• Intentions of separation between
• church and state?

5
Colonists

• Roger Williams
• William Penn

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The Founding Fathers

• Benjamin Franklin
• George Washington
• Thomas Jefferson
• Patrick Henry
• James Madison

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Thomas Jeffersons Wall of SeparationLetter
to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut
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Church and State History in the Supreme Court
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The Fourteenth Amendment

• No state shall make or enforce any law which
  shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
  citizens of the United States
• Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

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The Mormon Cases

• Reynolds v. United States (1879)
• Davis v. Beason (1890)
• The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus
  Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States
  (1890)

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• "Laws are made for the government of actions, and
  while they cannot interfere with mere religious
  beliefs and opinions, they may with practices."
• Chief Justice Warren

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Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

• Jeffersons wall of separation used by Justice
  Hugo Black

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Flag Salute Cases

• Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940)
• West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnett
  (1943)

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Prayer and Bible Reading in Public Schools

• Prayer
• Engel v. Vitale (1962)

• Bible Readings
• School District of Abington v. Schempp (1963)
• Murray v. Curlett (1963)

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The Lemon Test

• Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
• The statute must have a secular legislative
  purpose
• Its principal or primary effect must be one that
  neither advances nor inhibits religion
• The statute must not foster an excessive
  government entanglement with religion

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Todays Arguments

• Separationists
• Accommodationists
• Non-Preferentialists

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Separationists

• American Civil Liberties Union
• People for the American Way
• Americans United for the Separation of Church and
  State
• American Atheists

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Accommodationists

• Christian Coalition
• Christian Voice
• Family First
• Roy Moore

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The Relationship between Church and State in the
United States