Separation of church and state

Motto of the French state, on a church door. "[The] French Republic" "Freedom, Equality, Friendship"

Separation of church and state is a phrase that was used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter in 1802 to the Baptist Association in Danbury, Connecticut. The Supreme Court of the United States, in 1962, took the phrase in their decisions to make school prayers unconstitutional. This idea has been put into effect in a number of countries.

Other page

• Secular state
• Secularism
• Freedom of religion