...here is the original second amendment, before it was pared down, with the full meaning made clear: That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural,...

...stated: "That the People have an equal, natural and unamenable right, freely and peaceably to Exercise their Religion according to the dictates of Conscience,...and that no Religious Sect or Society ought to be favoured or established by Law in preference of others. Massachusetts and South Carolina also recommended...

...Both the New York and the Rhode Island Ratifying Conventions suggested amendments to the Constitution that "no religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others."77 Disestablishment of religion also served to protect the principle of separation of Church...

...religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christianity ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others." In other words, there was to be no officially-sanctioned Christian denomination. The government should...

...religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christianity ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others." In other words, there was to be no officially-sanctioned Christian denomination. The government should...

...vein: That the people have an equal, natural, and unalienable right, freely and peaceably to exercise their religion according to the dictates of conscience,...to be favored or established by law in preference of others.20 New Hampshire is just as firm on the rights of conscience, or on anything "touching" religion:...

...right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others." Nowhere, not in the invectives of mudslingers abusing each other in the nation's newspapers nor in...

...on twenty recommendations proposed by the Virginia delegates. One of these was that "no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others." This proposal was based on a law written by Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson was absent for the entire Constitutional...

...would assert the "unalienable right to the free exercise of religion" and assure that "no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established, by law, in preference to others."67 As a result of political pressure from the antifederalists at the state conventions, the...

...are or have been in actual rebellion." And the New York Convention included this proposed amendment: "That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, including the body of the people capable of bearing arms, is the proper, natural,...