ABSTRACT
By examining the debates in the First Congress and eighteenth-century uses of the phrase "establishment of religion" it was found that the Clause simply did not denote any particular arrangement or arrangements between religion and government. Federalists, prior to the ratification of the Constitution, assumed that religious rights were already guaranteed by the Constitution and that adding a bill of rights would not augment those natural rights. Given that numerous state charters specifically prohibited the establishment of one sect, and that the language of the First Amendment prohibited "laws respecting an establishment of religion" it would seem that the federal Constitution repudiated the narrower limits adopted by those states. Furthermore, it was suggested, the right of citizens to be treated equally by governments was one of those rights possessed by the people irrespective of whether the right to equal treatment was recorded in written law.
