By Macy Faye
In New York state, prayer before a public school basketball game might raise a few eyebrows. But over in Texas, that same prayer might open the game itself. Church-state separation may be protected in every part of this country on paper, but in practice, how well it’s protected often depends on one’s zip code.
Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and noted deist (not the devoted Christian many Christian Nationalists try to paint him out to be), sought to create a “wall of separation between the church & state” for a number of reasons. Even in 1787, America found herself grappling with citizens practicing different faiths. Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington were deists; others, like John Jay, were Christian.
Many people think the issue of separation of church and state is a red state problem. After all, Republican-led states like Texas do tend to headline a lot of major cases. But the truth is more complicated – violations occur everywhere, even in deep-blue cities like mine.
As a lifelong New Yorker, I personally never regarded church-state separation as a common issue, or at least one that other New Yorkers particularly worried about. I had a varied academic background: growing up, I attended public schools, religious Sunday schools, and private schools. The Big Apple has a very varied religious school culture: my best friends attended yeshivas, Catholic schools, and Islamic academies. All of them were private, of course, but it never felt problematic. New York just seemed to have it figured out.
Then take, for example, Texas – that was always an entirely different story. It’s a part of the Bible Belt, and 75.5% of Texans identify as Christian. I had long observed the Lone Star State in and out of the news (as well as my Public Law class – shoutout to Professor M!) for church-state separation cases. In the past, cases like Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989), City of Boerne v. Flores (1997), and Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000) were brought in front of the Supreme Court in an effort to shift the status quo. Texas politicians, to this day, have continued to push a Christian Nationalist vision for the state, passing Texas Senate Bill 10 this year, which requires all public schools to put Ten Commandments in classrooms (and which AU and allies are challenging in court), as well as Texas House Bill 229, which creates religiously motivated legal definitions of “man” and “woman.”
I’ve always had a perception of church-state separation being a problem in other places, but as much as I love my city, New York is not perfect. Mayor Eric Adams sent shockwaves in 2023 when he claimed, “Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body, church is the heart” at an interfaith breakfast. This year, the city faced further controversy when officials pulled funding from two yeshivas, and revoked their rights to operate as schools, stating they didn’t provide an adequate enough education for their students.
This, of course, brings questions to what an adequate education is, and what secular standards apply to religious schools. Some praised the decision as an effort to ensure that all youth receive a quality education, while others viewed it as government overreach into religious practice. Some yeshivas in the Hudson Valley have continued to operate regardless of state orders. While different from what we see in Texas, these tensions demonstrate that the balance between religious freedom and state responsibility is still being negotiated, including in progressive, “blue-leaning” states.
Federal policies related to church-state separation have always varied depending on the president and, of course, affect every state, red or blue. For example, Ronald Reagan publicly associated himself with neoconservative Christians. Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law in 1993. President Donald Trump has taken a slightly similar path to Reagan, establishing the first-ever Religious Liberty Commission, mostly made up of evangelicals espousing ideas like “it is the duty to prefer Christians as rulers” and “our freedoms, our rights, come from God and no government can take that away”— unfortunate and untrue statements.
What New York and Texas reveal is something quite simple. No state, red or blue, is immune. The idea that church-state separation is a hot potato being flung back and forth between red and blue states is harmful to the principle of separating church and state. If we as Americans chalk up this principle to individuals or even politics, we risk missing violations across the country. And if we’re not looking, we’re not defending the rights of everyone— no matter their faith or zip code.
If you feel you’ve experienced a church-state separation violation, Americans United may be able to help. Fill out our form here.
Macy Faye interned with Americans United’s Outreach Department this summer. Faye’s internship was supported by Collective Power for Reproductive Justice. Image by John M. Lund Photography, Inc. via Getty Images.
