ABSTRACT
Church-state conflicts in the United States transpire within the context of a venerated constitutional tradition which prohibits Congress from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Although the First Amendment speaks directly only to Congress, the Supreme Court has long since held that the bill of rights is incorporated into the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and is thereby binding on the actions of the states. In the context of this tradition and the increasing prominence of the Free Exercise clause in constitutional law in the last several decades, a very rough distinction can be made between two kinds of issues or conflicts involving the relationship between church and state in the United States today.
