Walz v. Tax Commission

The First Amendment of the Constitution sets forth that Congress should not make any laws "respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The first part of the amendment is called the "Establishment Clause," and the second is called the "Free-Exercise Clause." In the broadest terms, these two clauses create a separation of church and state.

In order for the government to guarantee religious freedoms, many people believe that it must show neutrality and not favor one religion over another. This neutrality allows individuals the right to choose what religious views, if any, they wish to believe and the right to practice them however they see fit. To maintain this separation of church and state, the courts have generally ruled that all religious matter must be kept away from the public environment. By doing this, some liberties which might favor one faith over another, such as state-sponsored school prayer, must be abridged in order to ensure that the Constitution's basic religious liberties apply to all.