The United States Supreme Court is now directing its attention to the separation of church and state.
Last Friday, five of the eight Supreme Court Justice voted to overturn Roe V. Wade, ending women’s constitutional right to abortion. Now, the court is looking to knock down another law that upholds American freedoms: the “separation of church and state.”
“Separation of church and state” is mentioned in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and is known as the “establishment clause.” It states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” While the wording “separation of church and state” isn’t included, the clause within the First Amendment means that the government must stay neutral toward all religions and must not recognize any religion as an official religion.
On Monday, the Supreme Court stood behind a Washington state public high school football coach who refused to stop delivering Christian prayers to players. It also recently supported taxpayer money being used to fund students who want to attend religious schools under a Maine tuition assistance program, Reuters reports. And we just saw the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which religious groups have spoken out against.
Specifically, the justices who voted to overturn Roe included Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Brett Kavanaugh, Neil M. Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. The judges who voted to uphold Roe included Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Thomas has also called for the court to revisit other decisions, including contraception and same-sex marriage.
