"Black's wall differs from Jefferson's wall," says Dreisbach. "Jefferson's wall explicitly separated the institutions of church and state, while Black's wall separates religion and all civil government. Moreover, Jefferson's wall separated church and the national government only."

By incorporating the First Amendment non-establishment provision into the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Black's wall separates religion and civil government at all levels -- national, state and local. This interpretation of the wall created an instrument of the federal judiciary to invalidate policies and programs of state and local authorities, Dreisbach adds.

Key Principles

When asked to comment on the book's "bottom line" and the ramifications of Justice Black's 1947 interpretation of the wall, Dreisbach responded thus: "The wall metaphor mischievously redefines constitutional principles in at least two important ways:

"First, the phrase emphasizes separation between church and state -- unlike the First Amendment, which speaks in terms of the non-establishment and free exercise of religion. Second, a wall is a bilateral barrier that inhibits the activities of both the civil government and religion -- unlike the First Amendment, which imposes restrictions on the civil government only (specifically on Congress). Therefore, the wall unavoidably restricts religion's ability to influence public life, thus dangerously exceeding the limitations imposed by the Constitution.

"Today, the wall is used to separate religion from public life," continues Dreisbach, "thereby promoting a religion that is essentially private and a state that is strictly secular.

"The 'high and impregnable wall' constructed by the modern Supreme Court inhibits religion's ability to inform the public ethic, deprives religious citizens of the civil liberty to participate in politics armed with ideas informed by their spiritual values, and infringes the right of religious communities and institutions to extend their ministries into the public square. The wall has been used to silence the religious voice in the public marketplace of ideas and to segregate people of faith behind a restrictive barrier."