Supreme Court rulings, DeSantis antics threaten the separation of church and state

The final days of June marked one of the most epic, consequential terms in U.S. Supreme Court history.

The court overturned Roe v. Wade (eviscerating a right granted to women for nearly a half-century); struck down a 109-year-old New York gun-control law (severely handcuffing local authorities in restricting guns in public places); and nullified a seminal rulemaking order of the Environmental Protection Agency (throwing a monkey wrench into all future E.P.A. efforts to combat climate change).

Taken together, the rulings proclaim a new day in modern jurisprudence. A newly installed conservative bloc is now in control, eager to forge ahead, with little regard for real-world consequences — for women, public safety or the life of the planet.

Amid such turbulence, it's easy to lose sight of what the court and the state of Florida are also doing to upend another, long-revered constitutional standard: the separation of church and state.

Christian nationalists like to argue that those exact words don't appear in the First Amendment. That's true. What does appear is the following unconditional constitutional command: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion [the 'establishment' clause] or prohibiting the free exercise thereof [the 'free exercise' clause]." It was Thomas Jefferson who famously interpreted those words as "building a wall of separation between Church & State."

The conservative majority on the Supreme Court and Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, have a different view. They would elevate the "free exercise" clause over the "establishment" clause, intentionally evading the full breadth of the constitutional imperative. When, for example, the right to pray on school property is viewed as being paramount to the efforts of local authorities to remain neutral — by limiting religious activities adversely impacting others — church-state separation becomes unrecognizable.

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It's a trend that's been developing for several years, where the personal religious beliefs of individuals and groups seem to be taking precedence over society's interest in protecting church and state.

In its just completed term, the Supreme Court ordered the city of Boston to fly a Christian flag (that depicted a cross) outside City Hall (where it previously allowed only non-religious flags); required the state of Maine to pay for tuition at schools teaching religion (if it offers tuition to private, non-religious schools); and told a Bremerton, Washington high school that it couldn't restrain a football coach from rallying students to his prayer sessions on the 50-yard line.

In the football prayer case, the court seemed particularly unconcerned about the impact of the coach's overt entreaties on non-religious, non-Christian students —­ especially those on the team who might feel like they must pray to play. In effect, the court turns religious freedom into religious favoritism, precisely what the First Amendment was intended to guard against.

In Florida, church-state separation is threatened in other ways. It starts with Gov. DeSantis, who appears to think that his personal beliefs are under attack and must be defended. For instance, he's claimed, without evidence, that "the left" is "trying to establish a religion of their own" by eliminating all religion from the "public square."

To counter this obvious straw man, DeSantis has been busy blessing a new Florida law requiring all public schools to set aside up to two minutes of silence for children to meditate or pray — which sounds like the first step toward re­ establishing school prayer that's not silent.

Even more alarming, the governor has initiated "civics training" for teachers that's infused with contemporary Christian and conservative ideology. Workshops around the state are dispersing guidelines for teaching civics with the goal of turning students into "virtuous citizens." One slide used at such training sessions states that the "Founders expected religion to be promoted" because it was thought "to be essential to civic virtue."

Other slides shown criticize existing restraints on school prayer and de-emphasize slavery in American history. Most striking, they argue that it's a "misconception" that America's "Founders desired strict separation of church and state."

An emboldened supermajority on the Supreme Court and the indoctrination tactics of the DeSantis administration are at odds with most Americans, who still believe government should not endorse or favor any religion. Continuing to proceed down this path will only add to the bitter divisiveness already threatening our governing system.

Carl Ramey, a retired Washington communications attorney and monthly columnist for The Sun, lives in Gainesville.

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Carl Ramey: Supreme Court, DeSantis threaten church-state separation