THE LIGHT
Silver Member
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- #21
I think these are unconstitutional state laws, and Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the DoI, was agnostic to the point of writing his own bible.
1) These were written before the Constitution was written and ratified.
2) The First Amendment applies to the Congress, not the individual states.
So, to sum it up, there were official state religions amongst the individual states before and after the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. Such laws were not 'unconstitutional.'
Your #1 is correct. Your #2 is correct up to the point the 14th was ratified. State level limitations on the freedoms espoused in the First were one of the rasons for the breadth of the 14th beyond mere citizenship and equal protection of laws.
How is it in conflict?