A secular, open, and pluralistic society where government does not ascribe to one worldview over another is a right to which every American is entitled as guaranteed in the US constitution.

The First Amendment reads that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The first part of that requirement (the Establishment Clause) means that not only should there be no official state church, but also that government should be prohibited from entangling itself in religious matters without a religiously neutral reason.  Government shouldn’t take sides in support of one religion over another, or generally favor the religious over the nonreligious.

The second part of that requirement (the Free Exercise clause) extends government’s protection to all religious viewpoints and activities that don’t result in violations of other laws.  This should protect the assertively atheistic just as it now protects the devoutly faithful. Free exercise rarely requires the intervention of legislators. When they do intervene, it tends to result in special rights for the religious that discriminate against the nonreligious.

The AHA treats the support for government policies that bolster the secular foundations of law and culture in the United States as a continuous struggle. Accordingly, we work to defeat proposed legislation and eliminate existing laws that harm the Jeffersonian wall between church and state; we litigate and participate in other legal advocacy through the AHA’s legal organization, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center; and we mobilize members to speak out against governmental religious favoritism.