[This_person]

Originally Posted by Tilted

I have to disagree with you here. Although there is a widely held belief that there is no legal separation of Church and State, that belief is erroneous. The phrase was indeed given birth as a line in a letter by Thomas Jefferson, then the President of the United States.

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the majority opinion included this passage:

That ruling interpreted the establishment clause of the First Amendment as creating a wall of separation between Church and State, and in so doing it defined the meaning of the First Amendment as such. Many people have vehemently argued that the ruling was in error, basically that the Supreme Court got it wrong; however, it is what they held and that makes it the law of the land.

So, "separate but equal" was right?

If there is a "wall", how do the the faith based initiatives work? How does a tax-exempt status for a church work? Why do we have clergy in the military, in the openings of Congress and the Supreme Court.....?

I think that wall consists of not establishing a religion, nor prohibiting you to have your religion. And, that's about it.

Justice Rehnquist wrote a very comprehensive dissent to the majority opinion in which he argued that the decision, as well as the decision in Everson v. Board of Education, was in conflict with the original intent of the First Amendment. Many people have argued that he was correct, but his dissent was just that, a dissent, and as such it holds no legal authority, except to the extent that someone refers to his arguments when making their own.

And, eventually, I do believe that he will be proven correct. In practice, he already is.

The notion of 'separation of Church and State' may have begun as a simple phrase in a letter, but it was given power, and indeed legal authority, by the Supreme Court of the United States. There are plenty of great legal minds who will tell you without reservation that they got it wrong; nonetheless, for legal purposes the validity of their interpretation is inherent.

In other words, although many people think it should be otherwise, in the United States there is a legal wall of separation between Church and State.

Except in the millions of ways that there is not, I agree. Or, rather, in the only ways that there is a wall (the one that prohibits the government from establishing religion, and prohibiting me from my religion), I agree.