Separation of church and state

A principle limiting formal governmental control of religious institutions and religious control of government. Its legal meaning varies across constitutional systems.

Establishment Clause: A clause in the First Amendment prohibiting the United States government from establishing religion. It is the principal constitutional text used to restrict government establishment of religion in the United States.
Roger Williams: An English-born Puritan theologian who founded Rhode Island and advocated liberty of conscience and separation of church and state. His writings gave an early colonial expression to the image of a protective wall between religious and civil authority.
Laïcité: A French political principle requiring state institutions to remain religiously neutral and limiting religious expression in some public settings. Its stronger public-institutional neutrality contrasts with approaches that permit broader religious expression in state settings.
Everson v. Board of Education: A 1947 United States Supreme Court case applying the Establishment Clause to state and local governments. The Court used it to apply a strong separation metaphor while upholding neutral reimbursement for school transportation.
Free Exercise Clause: A First Amendment provision protecting religious exercise from government interference, subject to constitutional limits. Its protection of religious practice complements limits on government religious establishment.
Thomas Jefferson: An American political leader and author of the Declaration of Independence who later served as president. His 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists popularized the phrase “wall of separation.”
State religion: A religion officially recognized or privileged by a government. It represents a formal constitutional arrangement opposite to strict institutional separation.
Engel v. Vitale: A 1962 United States Supreme Court decision holding that state-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the Establishment Clause. It barred government-written prayer in public schools, even when participation was formally voluntary.
Lemon test: A former United States Supreme Court test for whether government action violated the Establishment Clause. For decades, courts used it to assess whether government involvement with religion crossed constitutional boundaries.
James Madison: An American political thinker and president who helped draft the Constitution and Bill of Rights. His advocacy of religious liberty helped shape the First Amendment’s limits on federal religious policy.

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