AG James Uthmeier issued a legal opinion declaring that the state constitution’s ban on public funding for religious institutions violates the First Amendment.
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Florida AG: Florida can establish its own state religion - Establishment Clause only applies to federal government
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Moreover, Uthmeier’s legal opinion argues the First Amendment’s clause preventing the establishment of a particular religion only applies to the federal government, and the states are free to impose their own state religion.
“(The Establishment Clause) did not impose the same restriction on the states. In fact, many states at the Framing had established churches,” Uthmeier wrote.
Also, the First Amendment doesn’t bar the states from “encouraging” religion, especially Christianity, Uthmeier asserts.
“It is clear, then, that the First Amendment did not displace Christianity as the center of the nation’s religious identity. At the Framing, ‘the general, if not universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State, so far as such encouragement was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship,’” Uthmeier wrote, citing the 1833 book ‘Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States’ by Joseph Story.
Uthmeier’s interpretation of the Establishment Clause also claims that while atheists are protected in their beliefs, their actions derived from nonbelief aren’t “privileged” in the same way as those who adhere to a religion.
