Bill Nelson: “I wanted to ask this of my friend from Connecticut, who I think has variously served in so many different role models to…”

“I wanted to ask this of my friend from Connecticut, who I think has variously served in so many different role models to the Senate, variously described as the Senator who is the conscience of the Senate, certainly as a former attorney general of his State, someone who understands the legal ramifications of arguments such as this. In my earlier comments today, I had said that I thought there was in law, and the development of law, and the development of the Constitution, which you and I both quoted from, the Declaration, a clear distinction, as the distinguished Senator has noted, of the freedom of religion. And that part of that body of law that would make up that freedom, that religious freedom, would be a freedom to worship as one would want, if at all, and that that is a right we jealously protect, just as we protect the other freedoms--freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and so forth--and that when you look at this freedom, there is a distinct difference, as the case law has developed, of the separation of church and state which would embody that idea that we don't cram religion down anybody's throat, that we leave it up to them individually to express their own beliefs, if they want to at all, and to believe as they want to, if at all. That is the concept of separation of church and state, as distinguished from there not being necessarily a separation of the state and of God.”