O’Connor’s Law

Church-State Separation Has Served Us Well

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has always been plain spoken. A few weeks ago, she offered some blunt words about the relationship between religion and government.

“I do think we’re lucky in this country,” she said. “We have generally kept religion a matter of individual conscience and not a matter for the prosecutor or bureaucrat.”

Speaking to an audience of 400 in Williamsburg, Va., the former justice assailed the idea that government should have greater authority to promote Christianity. In countries where the majority faith has government support, she noted, minorities are often persecuted. She pointed to a recent incident in Afghanistan where a man was sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, O’Connor, a Reagan appointee to the high court, said separation of church and state has benefited our nation greatly.

“Why should we trade our system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?” she asked.

O’Connor, who is serving in the ceremonial post of chancellor of the College of William and Mary this year, conceded that the wall of separation between religion and government has not always followed a straight path. She jokingly compared it to Thomas Jefferson’s curving “serpentine wall” at the University of Virginia.

But she said she is thankful, nonetheless, for a Constitution that protects the free exercise of religion while forbidding government endorsement of any faith.

O’Connor’s Oct. 7 lecture and discussion in Colonial Williamsburg’s Kimball Theatre was sponsored by William & Mary Law School’s Institute of Bill of Rights Law.

Those who have followed Supreme Court law over the years know that O’Connor’s record on the nation’s top judicial bench was far from perfect. But her firm commitment to the general principle of church-state separation is welcome.

We are especially pleased to see such direct comments from a former Republican state legislator. Support for church-state separation should be nonpartisan. Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Independents and political activists across the spectrum ought to rally to this vital cause.