Freedom From Government Sponsored Religion Is America's First Liberty

President Trump issued a lengthy Proclamation recognizing Dec. 29, 2020 as the 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. The Proclamation reads in part: "Before the Magna Carta was drafted, before the right to free exercise of religion was enshrined as America’s first freedom in our glorious Constitution . . ." 

Actually, the "free exercise of religion" is the SECOND right listed in the First Amendment. The "FIRST right" is the freedom from "an establishment of religion" -- that is, freedom from government sponsored religion. Or, as Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison expressed the principle, a separation of church and state. 

Robert V. Ritter, Founder, Jefferson Madison Center for Religious Liberty 

 

Photo: President James Madison. On June 8, 1789, (then) Virginia Representative Madison proposed a bill of rights in the First Congress. As modified, they would become the Bill of Rights in 1791.

 

Town of Greece v. Galloway -- another horrendous decision by the conservative Catholic majority

The Supreme Court held 5-4 today in Town of Greece v. Galloway that sectarian prayers at government meetings do not violate the Establishment Clause. I'm sure that James Madison (Father of the Bill of Rights) and Thomas Jefferson (author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom) are rolling over in their graves.

Justice Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion in Town of Greece: "Legislative prayer has become part of our heritage and tradition, part of our expressive idiom, similar to the Pledge of Allegiance, inaugural prayer, or the recitation of ‘God save the United States and this honorable Court’ at the opening of this Court’s sessions.” Slip op. at 19.

Unbelievable. Not true. Absolutely false. No. No. No.

As co-counsel with Mike Newdow in Newdow v. Roberts (challenging the religious practices of the 2009 presidential inaugural ceremony) -- representing over 250 nonbelievers -- I can say with certitude (just as Peter Eliasberg said during oral arguments in Salazar v. Buono (2010) that you won't find a Christian cross in a Jewish cemetery) that recitation of Christian prayers is NOT part of the heritage of nonbelievers and other nonChristians.

From this (and other decisions of the Court), I conclude that the Town of Greece decision is a fraud perpetrated by the five conservative Roman Catholic justices in furtherance of Christian dominion. They ignore the Establishment Clause at our peril.