Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Reynolds v. United States by Supreme Court of the United States
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions,—I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”
Reynolds v. United States, Opinion of the Court (Waite, C.J.), quoting Jefferson's 1802 reply to the Danbury Baptist Association (U.S. Reports text (Legal Information Institute))
Waite quotes Jefferson as an authoritative statement of the amendment's scope; these are Jefferson's words, not the Chief Justice's.
Citation: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions,—I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State." — Supreme Court of the United States, Reynolds v. United States, Opinion of the Court (Waite, C.J.), quoting Jefferson's 1802 reply to the Danbury Baptist Association (U.S. Reports text (Legal Information Institute)). (id reynolds-v-united-states-q1)
Portrait: Chief Justice Morrison Waite, Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain.
