The Supreme Court

In Reynolds v. United States (1879), a landmark case, the Supreme Court determined that bigamy could not be justified on religious grounds. This case was arguably the first Supreme Court case clearly involving religion and First Amendment issues. The twentieth century saw the escalating involvement of the Supreme Court in interpreting the religion clauses of the First Amendment and in determining the route of the wall separating church and state. The process of incorporation involved the Supreme Court applying the due process and equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the states to insure that they applied to all citizens. Gradually, those states with an established religion went through the process of disestablishment, and the curves in the wall began to grow tighter. The passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and the incorporation of the First Amendment by the Supreme Court started the process of standardizing the route of the serpentine wall in individual states.