Where does “separation of church and state” appear in the constitution?
The concept is found in the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . . .” The Amendment does not contain the literal phrase, “separation of church and state,” but that is its meaning. Both chief architects of the Constitution — James Madison and Thomas Jefferson — agreed on that and used the phrase freely. In any case, “separation of church and state” is only a useful distillation of the Constitution’s intent. The words “fair trial” are absent from the Constitution as well, but no one denies that it is a fundamental American principle.
