PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tags state & religion

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in the landmark case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) that “if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” His words were a ringing affirmation of the freedoms of conscience and expression that are central to American liberty.

I recently exchanged e-mails with a person who disagreed somewhat strongly with some of my public policy positions. This disagreement was neither unusual nor note-worthy, in and of itself. But it became especially irksome to me when the discussion turned to the liberals' standard fallback position: an outraged accusation of my alleged violation of the Constitution's ironclad requirement for the "Separation of Church and State."