"Reasonable minds can disagree about how to apply the Religion Clauses in a given case. But the goal of the Clauses is clear: to carry out the Founders’ plan of preserving religious liberty to the fullest extent possible in a pluralistic society. By enforcing the Clauses, we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat. At a time when we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails, while allowing private religious exercise to flourish. [...] Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?"
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Politicians from TexasJustices of the Supreme Court of the United StatesLawyers from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesWomen in law
Original Language: English
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McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union, 545 U.S. 844 (2005) (concurring)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O'Connor
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Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930 – December 1, 2023) was an American jurist. She served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 until she retired from the bench in January 2006. The first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, she was a crucial swing vote on the Court for many years because of her case-by-case approach to jurisprudence and her relatively moderate political views.
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