Establishment Clause of the First Amendment

The First Amendment covers a lot of material, and future posts will deal with freedom of speech, and freedom of association. This post will center on freedom of religion. Your first thought when reading a fact pattern on the MBE that implicates freedom of religion should be to determine whether your analysis should be guided by The Establishment Clause, or The Free Exercise Clause. I. The Establishment Clause: The Establishment Clause is implicated when a government program, or governmental legislation prefers one religion, or one religious sect, over another, or when the government is providing some benefit to a religious institution but the legislation or government program contains no religious or sect preference. If the former, then traditional strict scrutiny is applied, and the program will fail unless the government can prove that the program is necessary to further a compelling government interest.…

Freedom of Religion In the United States, there is nothing more important than our religious freedom. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment in the Constitution explicitly lays out the relationship between religion and government: any government body within our borders cannot implement a ‘national’ religion (SP#3). This clause drives diversity and tolerance and sustainability for all people - to an extent- (SP#4A). Though 70% of our population follow a Christian faith (Catholic,…

namely, “Separation of Church and State”. Roots of this phrase can be traced all the way back to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in January of 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut. Though the First Amendment clause against establishment of religion by law was to ensure that there was separation between religion and government, various courts to this day are still hearing cases and this remain an ongoing subject of interpretation and perspectives. I believe this is so…

New York, stating that public schools would open the day with the Pledge of Allegiance, then a non-denominational prayer in which students were to recognize their independence upon God. Then, in 1962, a parent sued on behalf of his child, arguing that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case was moved all the way to the Supreme Court, which resulted in a six to one vote…

upon lesser-known religions not being given the same liberty as more popular religions. Here, a public park had 11 permanent privately donated displays including the Ten Commandments. The Summum religion is a sect of the Christian religion that believes in two versions of the Ten Commandments, the first being destroyed and the second, known as the seven aphorisms are what should rule. They petitioned the city to allow them to place their version of the Ten Commandments at the park. The city…

The first amendment states that citizens in America have the right to practice whatever religion they want, and the government cannot promote or discriminate any one religion. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. Some people think this means that even though the government cannot promote a religion, schools or government spaces should be able to acknowledge God. Public school teachers should have the right to teach about…

freedoms that government is obligated to protect. Government should not intrude or embark on those rights. Yet time and time again there are restrictions on each and every individual “freedom” given to us. The Bill of Rights essentially protects the freedom of expression and rights of the accused. The Bill of Rights are composed of the first ten amendments. More so than others, the first and fourth amendment have been demolished and remolded. Which was never supposed to happen in the Framers…

of us to all agree on one specific topic. The first amendment of the united states constitution gives us all americans the freedom to practice any religion of our choosing. The first amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free…

to live in a country that has a constitution that protects our freedom and rights as human beings. One important piece of the constitution is the first amendment which protects are religious freedom. The right to practice any religion is often taken for granted living here in the United States. We are fortunate that our government does not force a specific type of religion for to practice as citizens of this country. Our country should not be stereotyped to follow one religion, we have many…

secularism, First Amendment activists against anti-Communist crusaders and so on. Freedom from an established religion and the ability to freely exercise any religion of your choosing are cornerstones of American democracy. It has long been debated what exactly constitutes an established religion or what constitutes prohibiting free exercise of religion, but government protest and individualism are also tenants of the American view of…