(US, law) A clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
- 2011 October 17, Stanley Fish, “Is Religion Above the Law?”, in The New York Times:
  The free-exercise clause tells us that that religion is especially favored and the establishment clause tells us that it is especially feared (the state should avoid entanglement with that stuff).

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