Editing Separation of church and state (section)

====Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States====
{{Main|Church of the Holy Trinity v. United_States#Christian_nation}}
In the 1892 case ''[[Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States]]'', Supreme Court Justice [[Justice David Brewer|David Brewer]] wrote for a unanimous Court that "no purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people. ... [T]his is a Christian nation."<ref name="Finkelman">{{cite book |last1=Finkelman |first1=Paul |title=Religion and American Law: An Encyclopedia |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1136919565 |page=76 |language=en}}</ref>

Legal historian [[Paul Finkelman]] writes that:
{{Blockquote|Brewer, the son of a Congregationalist missionary to Asia Minor, quoted several colonial charters, state constitutions, and court decisions that referred to the importance of Christian belief in the affairs of the American people; cited the practice of various legislative bodies of beginning their sessions with prayer, and noted the large number of churches and Christian charitable organizations that exist in every community in the country as evidence that this is a Christian nation. In doing so, Brewer expressed the prevailing nineteenth-century Protestant view that America is a Christian nation.<ref name="Finkelman"/>}}