Ideas and Society

Editor’s Note: The following is part three in a four-part series on religious liberty. To see the previous installment, click here. 

Now, it’s true that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Everson v. Board of Education mentions much more than just Thomas Jefferson’s statute, in explaining at length the historical context in which the First Amendment was developed. But Jefferson’s statute is the primary justification for the Court’s opinion. In fact, the vast majority of the other sources cited for context in the decision are not directly related to the First Amendment.

Everson discusses the historic plight of Protestants, for instance, which is interesting but hardly constitutes jurisprudence. Therefore, we ought not concern ourselves with how many pages and footnotes are spent in narrative. We ought to concern ourselves with the bottom line justification offered by the Court, which the narrative culminates towards, which is Jefferson’s statement.

Contrary to the idea that Jefferson’s letter is “only” one piece of evidence the Court used, Everson singles out Virginia and speaks of the “dramatic climax” led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Everson then quotes Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Immediately after the Court quotes from Jefferson’s Statute (including the part of the Statute that puts explicit governmental acknowledgment of God into law by setting forth the doctrines: that God is Almighty, that God created the mind free, that God has a Holy plan, is Lord both of body and mind, etc.), the decision immediately and authoritatively states that “the provisions of the First Amendment … had the same objective and were intended to provide the same protection against governmental intrusion on religious liberty as the Virginia statute.” It could not be more clear.

Therefore, the only way the First Amendment can be seen to inhibit governmental acknowledgment of God is if Jefferson’s statute inhibits itself, a claim which the Court did not made not the slightest indication of when quoting the part of Jefferson’s Statute which makes claims about God.

To re-iterate, the Court explicitly said that Jefferson’s Statute which declares the existence of God is the authoritative interpretation of the First Amendment clauses.

Perhaps, in light of the facts I have presented so far, some people might try to minimize Jefferson by arguing that the phrase “separation between church and state” is merely a convenient set of words which the Court chose for reasons having nothing to do with Jefferson’s Statute. This however would be a curious argument to make, considering Everson used the phrase more than once and concludes with, “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”

Given the court’s emphatic use of Jefferson’s phrase from the letter, we should note that Jefferson ends that letter with “kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man.” So, if we are to use Jefferson’s standard, as the Court did in Everson, government correspondence can include reference to God.

Some may claim that James Madison influenced the Court’s view more than Jefferson, however this is simply a speculative claim, considering that the Court quoted Jefferson’s work at length and explicitly cited it as providing “the same” protection as the Establishment Clause; in contrast, the Court lightly quoted Madison’s work, citing it not as a basis for the First Amendment but as having received “strong support throughout Virginia.”

Regardless of how Madison may or may not have interpreted the amendment, what matters is the intent of Congress as a body. Clearly, the Congressional session which drafted and passed the religion clauses saw no conflict between the clauses and governmental acknowledgment of God via Thanksgiving—just as the Court in Everson saw no conflict between those clauses and official government acknowledgment of God in the Virginia Statute (a Statute which Jefferson remained proud of till his dying day).

Is the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom is unconstitutional? Is Thanksgiving as enacted by the very session of Congress which wrote the constitution, unconstitutional?

I don’t know of anyone who claims the Court relied exclusively on Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, in its Everson ruling. They did rely on it however, and any speculation on how much they relied on it is just that, speculation. But we are discussing it because the “Separation between Church and State” phrase is constantly repeated by those who want to inhibit government association with things relating to God. They are the ones who propped up the phrase as being an authoritative encapsulation of the religion clauses. For my part, I am simply responding, and I can’t very well respond by claiming that the Court didn’t really mean it. After all, the Court did in fact cite it.

To this day, the Virginia Statute is still on the books and is valid. Some might propose that its Constitutionality should be challenged. However, the Court quoted the religious doctrines in the Statute, which the Statute specifically says is the basis for the rest of the Statute. By citing those doctrines in that same context, the Court affirms that they are legitimate premises for the rest of the Statute and thus this sets precedent for the validity of basing laws on religious beliefs.

In other words, a court can’t say that the preamble has no legal effect—because the Statute makes that legal effect clear by not only mentioning God but also explaining that this belief is the basis for the Statute. The Statute itself tells us it was written because of religious beliefs.

To make this perfectly clear:

1 – Religious doctrines are the basis for Jefferson’s Statute. The Statute introduces those

doctrines with “Whereas” which means “in view of the fact that.” As such, the preamble contains enumerated justifications or reasons for the part of the Statute that follows after. The doctrines listed are: that God is Almighty, that God created the mind free, that God has a plan, that attempts to influence the mind by punishment are a departure from that plan, and that God is Lord both of body and mind.

2 – Jefferson’s Statute is the basis for the Establishment Clause and it also takes sides on the existence of God.

3 – The Supreme Court said the religion clauses of the Constitution offer the exact same protection as that offered under this Statute which takes sides on the existence of God.

4 – Therefore, the Establishment Clause cannot possibly prohibit the practice of basing laws on religious beliefs.