Separation of church & state

Of all of the phrases connected with the Constitution of the United States, the only phrase more famous than ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms’ must be ‘separation of church and state’. It has informed debates about the Establishment Clause found in the First Amendment for years. The American Constitution is also clear that ‘no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States’ (Article VI, Clause 3).

This all seems clear. Religion has no role to play in government in America. However, it becomes rather less clear when you realise that the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ does not appear anywhere in the Constitution at all. How, then, has a phrase that forms no part of the supreme law of the US managed to become part of it?

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