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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 …
The Myth Of Church-State Separation, David E. Steinberg
The Myth Of Church-State Separation, David E. Steinberg
David E. Steinberg
The Myth Of Church-State Separation
by David E. Steinberg
Abstract
This article asserts that the church-state separation interpretation of Establishment Clause history is simply wrong. When they enacted the First Amendment, the framers were focused on the first five words of the amendment, which read: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .” The Establishment Clause guaranteed that the federal government would not interfere in state regulation of religion – whatever form that state regulation took. Rather than enacting the Establishment Clause to mandate a separation of church …