Reb Eliezer
There is NO law that separates religion and state in the USA.
The First Amendment to the Constitution reads:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”
This means Congress may not pass a law establishing an official religion of the USA.. We have no ‘Church of the USA’ while there is a ‘Church of England’ and the English Monarch it titular head of the Church.
Government meetings, sessions of Congress are free to open with prayers. In 1962 The Supreme Court ruled that there could be no school prayer. The members of Congress are adults (although they may not act that way, while young schoolchildren are impressionable and subject to indoctrination, and peer and teacher pressure.
The second clause says that Congress may not interfere with the practice of religion. This is what allows minorities such as Jews to observe and practice our religion in the USA.
Personally, I believe the second clause is far more important than the first. I could care less if there was an official Church of the USA id inhabitants could not be required to belong or adhere to the religion and no tax dollars spent on its buildings and operations….as long as Congress could not interfere with the practice of other religion.
The term Separation of Church and State is not in the Constitution, but was used by Thomas Jefferson to explain the operation of the two clauses of the First Amendment referring to religion.