TIPPING THE BALANCE: THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE’S EFFECT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

1783, the thirteen American colonies adopted the Articles of Confederation as the governing document between the colonies-now-states. Fearing the power of an oppressive central govern-ment, nearly all power was given to the states, which rendered the nation as a whole impotent for unified action. In 1787, recogniz-ing the need for a stronger central government to unify the states, a Constitutional Convention was called, in which the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution of the United States. The fore-sight and skill of these men can hardly be overstated. The genius of the document’s crafting has allowed for over 200 years of shifting politics to pry and pull at its meaning without any lasting or significant distortion. Instead, the Constitution has served as the matrix for the tension between viewpoints to play out over the role of government and the rights of individuals. The Constitution of the United States of America is the guiding document upon which the nation was founded. While the original document outlined the powers and structure of the government, it made no mention of individuals or their rights