Protect Religion's Place in the Public Square

The founders of the United States faced a thorny question: how best to order their new country so as to preserve religious liberty and the goods that come with it, while also preserving peace between diverse religious factions. The arrangement they struck was, in the words of James Madison, author of the First Amendment, “an entire abstinence of the government from interference [with religion] in any way whatever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect against trespasses on its legal rights by others.”