The
Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the
First Amendment to the
United States Constitution, stating, The Establishment Clause was written by Congressman
Fisher Ames in 1789, who derived it from discussions in the First Congress of various drafts that would become the amendments comprising the Bill of Rights. The second half of the Establishment Clause includes the
Free Exercise Clause, which guarantees freedom from governmental interference in both private and public religious affairs of all kinds.