Court Rulings

United States Supreme Court (1884)

"These inherent rights have never been more happily expressed than in the Declaration of Independence, "we hold these truths to be self-evident"--that is so plain that their truth is recognized upon their mere statement--"that all men are endowed"-- not by edicts of emperors or decrees of parliament, or acts of Congress, but "by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure these" --not grant them but secure them--"governments are instituted among men."  

United States Supreme Court (1892, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, commentary summarized)

Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."

United States Supreme Court (1963, School District of Abington Township v. Schempp)

"Secularism is unconstitutional....preferring those who do not believe over those who do believe....It is the duty of government to deter no-belief religions....Facilities of government cannot offend religious principles."

United States Supreme Court (1985, Wallace v. Jafree)

It is impossible to build sound constitutional doctrine upon a mistaken understanding of Constitutional history....The establishment clause had been expressly freighted with Jefferson's misleading metaphor for nearly forty years....

There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation [between church and state]....The recent court decisions are in no way based on either the language or intent of the framers."