Speech #980161355

In 1962. the Supreme Court abruptly ended over 170 years of religious exercise in the schools of this Nation. Until the Engel and Abington School District decisions. the establishment clause of the first amendment was generally understood only to prohibit the national government from officially approving. or holding in special favor. any particular religious faith or denomination. as was the practice in European countries when our Nation was founded. Justice Story clearly stated this understanding in his nearly contemporaneous "Commentaries on the Constitution": "The real object of the first amendment." he said. "was * * * to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which would give to an hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the National Government." In writing the establishment clause of the first amendment. our Founding Fathers wanted to prevent what had originally caused many colonial Americans to emigrate to this countryan official. state religion. At the same time. they sought. through the free exercise clause. to guarantee to all Americans the freedom to worship God without Government interference or restraint. In their wisdom. they recognized that true religious liberty precludes the Government from both forcing and preventing worship.