The Supreme Court: taking a sledge hammer to Jefferson's wall.

Is the Supreme Court gradually tearing down the wall of separation between church and state?

Two decisions from the current court term certainly suggest that Thomas Jefferson's metaphorical barrier is under sustained pounding.

In their 5-4 Agostini v. Felton decision, the justices for the first time approved a massive government program of instructional aid at religious schools. With funding from the federal Title One program, publicly paid teachers this fall will go into Roman Catholic and other religious schools to offer remedial classes.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in her June 23 majority opinion, blithely observed that the court no longer supports its former rule "that all government aid that directly aids the educational function of religious schools is invalid."

Although O'Connor cited regulatory safeguards that supposedly will prevent outright religious indoctrination with tax funds, there is no escaping the fact that the high court has countenanced an important subsidy for religious schooling. Paying the salaries of some teachers in church schools can only be seen as a major financial windfall for sponsoring denominations.

Justice David Souter certainly wasn't fooled by the court majority's sleight of hand. In his dissent, he charged that the decision authorizes "direct state aid to religious institutions on an unparalleled scale, in violation of the Establishment Clause's central prohibition against religious subsidies by the government."

Souter reminded his erring colleagues that the ban on taxi aid was put in place by the Framers of the Constitution for good reason. "The rule expresses," he said, "the hard lesson learned over and over again in the American past and in the experiences of the countries from which we have come, that religions supported by governments are compromised just as surely as the religious freedom of dissenters is burdened when the government supports religion."

Foes of religious liberty were delighted by the high court's constitutional apostasy. Appearing on television's "McLaughlin Group," Religious Right firebrand Patrick Buchanan thundered, "This court has been chipping away slowly at the wall of separation between church and state, and I think it's going to continue to do so.... This is a phony wall. It was put there by a phony court. It ought to be chipped away."

Religious Right forces were less pleased, however, with the justices' treatment of the First Amendment's other church-state provision -- the Free Exercise Clause. By a 6-3 vote, the court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal measure intended to bolster religious freedom rights.

The justices based their June 25 ruling on the separation of powers, contending that Congress had intruded too far into the judicial domain. Regardless of one's views on that subject, the City of Boerne v. Flores decision leaves religious individuals and groups, especially unpopular minorities, with fewer legal weapons at their disposal.

Americans United and an array of both liberal and conservative faith and public policy groups are looking at possible legislative remedies for this problem. What must be resisted, however, is the Religious Right's threat to "solve" the free exercise problem by passing a constitutional amendment.

After the high court verdict, House Speaker Newt Gingrich told interviewers on CNN's "Evans & Novak" that the Flores decision shows the need for an amendment such as U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook's H.J. Res. 78, a measure that would all but erase the church-state separation from the Bill of Rights.

"I believe that the court is making it clear we need to pass a constitutional amendment," argued Gingrich, "to protect religious liberties to re-establish what I believe the Founding Fathers intended."

Gingrich is wrong. What America really needs is a high court that respects and enforces both the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. We need justices like the late William Brennan, who knew that church-state separation and religious freedom are two sides of the same priceless coin.

In his 1983 Marsh v. Chambers dissent, Brennan observed, "The argument is made occasionally that a strict separation of religion and state robs that nation of its spiritual identity. I believe quite the contrary. It may be true that individuals cannot be `neutral' on the question of religion. But....neutrality by the organs of government is both possible and imperative."

The Supreme Court has wandered far from its stance in 1947 when the justices unanimously upheld a "high and impregnable" wall of separation between church and state. Americans United was formed in that year to see that Jefferson's vital bulwark remains solid. We have held the fort for 50 years, but we clearly have much work yet to do.

AMERICANS UNITED MARKS `50 YEARS OF FREEDOM' WITH GALA ANNIVERSARY EVENT

Americans United's annual conference will be celebrated Nov. 1-3 with an anniversary conference and gala marking "50 Years of Freedom" at the Hotel Washington in Washington, D.C.

In addition to exciting speaker, debates, roundtables and panel discussions, this year's conference will include an awards ceremony for members of Congress and other Americans who have fought courageously for church-state separation.

The Nov. 1 gala dinner will feature a presentation by writer, performer and political satirist Al Franken. The recipient of five Emmys for his work on Saturday Night Live, Franken is the author of the bestseller, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations. He is also well known for his presidential election coverage on CNN and his "Strange Bedfellows" appearances on Comedy Central with Arianna Huffington during the 1996 elections.

The conference convocation will feature Frosty Troy, a nationally celebrated speaker and editor of The Oklahoma Observer, an award-winning independent journal of politics, government and social issues, and a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize.

The Ebba Meyer Memorial Conference Session will feature a debate between AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn and Oliver North, nationally syndicated radio host and Religious Right favorite. The exchange will be moderated by Clarence Page, syndicated columnist, TV pundit and editorial board member for the Chicago Tribune.

The Public Schools Roundtable will be moderated by ABC News law correspondent Tim O'Brien, and will feature U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, Jr., (R-Okla.); U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.); Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice; Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York School of Law and former president of the ACLU; and J. Brent Walker, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.

Panelists scheduled to appear at other sessions include the Rev. Meg A. Riley, Loretta J. Ross, Cecile Richards, Daniel Lazare, Thomas L. Jipping and Norman Dorsen.

Said Americans United's Lynn, "This is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime event in our organization's history. AU members must not miss it."

For more information about the conference, contact Americans United at [phone] or write: Conference Coordinator, Americans United, 1816 Jefferson Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.