As President Ronald Reagan so eloquently noted, there is no separation of church and state in the US constitution.
That entire construct? Comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson sent to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. Fully twenty six years after the constitution was drafted and fully fifteen years after it was ratified.
And the precise thoughts conveyed by Jefferson, are derived from this excerpt from his letter. As follows:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."
Thus the wall of separation so referenced by Jefferson? Was not and is not a wall created metaphorically, to separate church and state. But rather a wall which was legislatively created, to protect religion and the free exercise there of, from any intrusion by government. By any attempt to transgress that inviolable right.
And as president Jefferson also eloquently noted in his letter. "That the legitimate powers of government, reach actions only. And not opinions"
Therefore, the legitimate actions of government, are bound to the actions allowed by the constitution. And not by the opinions of those, seeking to parse those constitutional powers or constraints. Including the opinions of presidents. Including President Thomas Jefferson. And including our current president.
And as such, therein lies the true wall of separation between church and state. And there in lies the true separation of the legitimate powers of the presidency, from an autocratic dictatorship.
Separation of church and state, is not a wall constructed to prevent the exercise of faith or religion, either publicly or in private. Absolutely nothing written in the US constitution, prohibits the invocation of group led or individual prayer, either in a public building, or on any government property.
Be it a school classroom, or a stadium, or a court house.
What has been witnessed over the last six decades in American jurisprudence concerning this issue, is nothing less than an abomination of the intent of the first amendment.
The first amendment set forth the clear establishment of five basic rights. And nothing in the language of the first amendment, allows for or provides any branch of our government, to assuage from adherence to those rights as set forth in the Constitution.
Look up Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists and read it for yourself. Aside from the fact that it was a short personal communication from the then president of the United States, the letter holds no legal or constitutional basis in law. Particularly as it concerns any attempts to parse the clear and direct language of the US Constitution.
Neither Thomas Jefferson's position as a signer of the Constitution, nor as the subsequent holder of the office of the presidency in 1802, provided him or any president since, the authority to refuse to abide by the US Constitution, which is the highest law of this land.
And any reasoned mind, having read Jefferson's letter of 1802 to the Danbury Baptists, can clearly see and understand that Jefferson's reference? Clearly denotes his support for the protection of religious freedom from the government. And not the reverse, as has been contended for the last sixty years by appellate court and supreme court rulings.
The entire function and purpose of the supreme court? Is to insure that all laws created after the ratification of the US constitution? Did not violate the premises or principles of rights, as enumerated in the Bill of Rights, combined with the articles of the constitution, derived and committed to writing in that document, as the only powers granted to the federal government.
As President Reagan rightfully asserted: 'The question is not whether God is on our side. But rather, are we on his side.'
As we stand here today, the US constitution is and has been under siege, for at least the last sixty years. And with each passing year, activist judges have assaulted and assuaged the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as if they were no more than some archaic and non binding set of suggestions.
As we stand here today, the Bill of Rights has been under direct attack, for at least the last two years. With those in Washington and in the media, calling into question and denying the basic rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Not to mention the freedom of peaceable assembly.
And once a government can declare the suspension of the right of the people to assemble to worship? As we have witnessed during the supposed Covid crisis? Then what prevents that same government, from suspending the right to assemble to worship, because that same government now considers the teachings of the Holy Bible as 'hate speech?'
And what prevents that same government, from utilizing its proxies in media and the corporate world of social media and business, from silencing freedom of speech completely. Which we have also witnessed in the last two years.
And what prevents that same government from declaring the people's right to assemble, in opposition to the legislative actions of their elected representatives, as domestic terrorism.
And what prevents that same government,
from stepping outside of the constitutionally directed legislative process, to literally create law/s by executive decrees and caveats. As we have seen increasingly in the last year.
Never has there been a time since the Declaration of Independence was written, that its words have been more poignant than they are today.
"WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation."
And they went further and declared those truths as self evident.
Are they any less self evident today.
