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Thomas Jefferson’S Establishment Clause Federalism, David E. Steinberg
Thomas Jefferson’S Establishment Clause Federalism, David E. Steinberg
David E. Steinberg
Thomas Jefferson’s Establishment Clause Federalism by David E. Steinberg
Abstract
According to mainstream legal analysis, Thomas Jefferson read the Establishment Clause as mandating a wall of separation between church and state. The Supreme Court has used this purported Jeffersonian interpretation as a basis for federal intervention into state religious regulation.
This view of Jefferson as an Establishment Clause separationist is not supported by the historical record. A belief in state's rights and limited federal government were Jefferson's most important tenets. Jefferson endorsed a Bill of Rights, which Jefferson and the anti-federalists viewed as a means of constraining federal power. After …