The Justice Department’s Religious Liberty Commission presented its final draft report to President Donald Trump on June 26 with recommendations to enhance religious freedom in the United States.
The 224-page draft report recommends that the Justice Department issue guidance clarifying the proper interpretation of the Establishment Clause, a provision of the First Amendment that prevents the government from establishing an official religion, and the separation of church and state.
“The truth is that the phrase ‘wall of separation between church and state’ appears neither in the First Amendment nor anywhere else in the Constitution,” the report stated.
“What the First Amendment does say is that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ In practical terms, that means the government may not take over the functions of a church or coerce religious observance.”…