<P> The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church . Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion to another...in the words of Jefferson, the (First Amendment) clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect' a wall of separation between church and State'...That wall must be kept high and impregnable . We could not approve the slightest breach . </P> <P> In Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution prohibits states and the federal government from requiring any kind of religious test for public office . In the Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994), The Court concluded that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion ." In a series of cases in the first decade of the 2000s--Van Orden v. Perry (2005), McCreary County v. ACLU (2005), and Salazar v. Buono (2010)--the Court considered the issue of religious monuments on federal lands without reaching a majority reasoning on the subject . </P> <P> Everson used the metaphor of a wall of separation between church and state, derived from the correspondence of President Thomas Jefferson . It had been long established in the decisions of the Supreme Court, beginning with Reynolds v. United States in 1879, when the Court reviewed the history of the early Republic in deciding the extent of the liberties of Mormons . Chief Justice Morrison Waite, who consulted the historian George Bancroft, also discussed at some length the Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments by James Madison, who drafted the First Amendment; Madison used the metaphor of a "great barrier". </P> <P> In Everson, the Court adopted Jefferson's words . The Court has affirmed it often, with majority, but not unanimous, support . Warren Nord, in Does God Make a Difference?, characterized the general tendency of the dissents as a weaker reading of the First Amendment; the dissents tend to be "less concerned about the dangers of establishment and less concerned to protect free exercise rights, particularly of religious minorities ." </P>

When was the first amendment written and by whom