Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick argued "there is no such thing as ‘separation of church and state' in the U.S. Constitution." He issued the statement this week in his role as chair of President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, which plans to make federal policy recommendations in May.
"For too long, the anti-God left has used this phrase to suppress people of religion in our country," Patrick said. "During all 7 Commission hearings, witness after witness testified that the so-called ‘separation of church and state' was used to take their God-given religious liberty rights away."
Patrick’s remarks come as Texas is involved in multiple battles over the dividing line between church and state. These include multiple lawsuits over the enforcement of Senate Bill 10, which requires the display of an explicitly Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments in every Texas public school classroom, as well as efforts by Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton — the latter a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate — to target what they call the implementation of Islamic religious law.
Douglas Laycock, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas School of Law, called Patrick’s statement a “very old claim from people who want to use government power to impose their religious practices on other people.”
"It is literally true that the word separation of church and state do not appear in the Constitution, but the idea clearly appears in the Constitution," Laycock added.
Sam Martin, Frank Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State University, said that, while it is technically true that the words "separation of church and state" do not appear in the Constitution, the principle is shorthand for what is embedded in the First Amendment's ban on a government-established religion.
"Religious people have every reason and claim to make arguments and be in public life," Martin said. "But [Patrick is] not just arguing that religious people belong in public life. He’s arguing for a more privileged role for Christianity in public institutions, and I think that that is less defensible and less in line with what we know about the founding and the Constitution and certainly the way the courts have interpreted rights to religious freedom.”
Patrick said the commission will deliver its recommendations to Trump on how to "safeguard" Americans' religious liberty next month.
"What I think Patrick is doing, and what this commission seems to be heading toward, is attacking the very fundamental idea that government should remain, let’s say, institutionally separate from religion," Martin said. "And that is a hallmark of Christian nationalist practice."
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