1901 L Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 466-3234
Fax: (202) 466-2587
Email: americansunited@au.org
Americans United for Separation of Church and State was founded in 1947 to guarantee that the wall between religion and government remains firmly erect. Although the organization states that it was not originally founded as a litigating group, Americans United was formed in reaction to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Everson v. Board of Education (1947). In this case, the Court upheld a New Jersey law permitting local governments to reimburse parents for transportation costs of sending their children to parochial schools. This decision, according to AU's current director of research, "precipitated a movement to repel assaults on the First Amendment."
Since its formation, the goals of Americans United (which formerly was Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State) have remained consistent: to revitalize the principle of church-state separation through the courts, legislatures, and the arena of public opinion. It carries out these goals through litigation, congressional testimony, and publication of a monthly magazine.
Pursuing the same goals today, the organization has grown dramatically. It currently has over 50,000 members, operates on a budget of over $1 million (almost exclusively derived from individual and membership contributions), and employs 19 workers and a staff attorney. It also relies on volunteer lawyers for 10 percent of its legal work. The tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization considers itself non-ideological.
While administration takes up a substantial proportion of its budget, litigation activities consume the next greatest share, 20 percent. Indeed, Americans United coordinates its rather extensive amicus curiae activity (approximately 12 per year) with the American Civil Liberties Union, American Jewish Committee, People for the American Way, and the National Education Association, among others. Most of its amicus and direct sponsorship activity takes place in the federal appellate courts. Requests for participation come from prospective litigants and other groups. The AU prefers to confine its activities to cases in which constitutional issues of establishment or free exercise of religion are at stake.
Americans United is involved in extensive litigation of First Amendment Establishment Clause issues throughout the United States. Since 1947 it has been involved in a large portion of the Establishment Clause cases, Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971); Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973); and Meek v. Pittenger (1975). The AU was one of a number of organizations that filed an amicus brief in Flast v. Cohen (1968), arguing to broaden the legal definition of standing in order to enhance taxpayer standing to bring suit to challenge federal disbursement of funds to parochial schools. In 1982 the Supreme Court decided Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which significantly cut back on federal standing for taxpayers in religious spending cases. Nevertheless, a few years later the Court did uphold two cases challenging school district use of federal funds to pay the salaries of public school employees who teach in parochial schools. In Aguilar w Felton (1985) and Grand Rapids School District v. Ball the U.S. Supreme Court found that this kind of assistance violates the Establishment Clause because it involved excessive entanglement of church and state.
More recently, in 1987 in Karcher v. May, the AU filed an amicus brief with the American Jewish Committee and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. urging the Supreme Court to find that New Jersey's minute of silence provision violated the Establishment Clause. In the same vein, it also participated in Edwards v. Aguillard (1987). At issue in Edwards was Louisiana's Balanced Treatment Act, which mandated the teaching of creation science along with evolution. Again, the AU's position was that the act: impermissibly advances religion. Despite appellants' self-serving assertions to the contrary, "creationism" does not fall within any cognizable definition of scientific theory. It is neither the product of, nor susceptible of change pursuant to, the scientific method. Instead, creationism represents a religious approach to a natural phenomenon presented in the language, but not the methodology, of science. There is nothing wrong with a religious world view, but the Constitution clearly bars its advancement in the public schools. (Brief filed on August 18, 1986)
FURTHER INFORMATION: Morgan, Richard E. (1968). The Politics of Religious Conflict (New York: Pegasus). Sorauf, F. (1976). The Wall of Separation (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press).
