Americans United for Separation of Church and State HQ

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is the only national organization solely dedicated to church-state separation, the lynchpin of religious freedom for all. We have been leading this fight since 1947. Our primary goal is to move toward a bold vision of an America where the majority of our citizens, including the next generation of leaders, understands and values the separation of church and state and religious freedom. Our efforts confront and dismantle its misuse to discriminate and advance a doctrine of religious freedom that protects everyone. We do this through strategic litigation, public policy, movement-building, and increasing the visibility of our issue and AU. This allows us to protect our laws and policies from favoring religion, or any one religion, over nonreligion and from discrimination in the name of “religious liberty.”

Reversing the Misuse of Religious Freedom to Harm: AU’S legal and advocacy resources will challenge outright discrimination by the government while relentlessly defending against the misuse of religious exemptions and religious freedom arguments to, for example, deny social services, contraceptive coverage, or protections from discrimination in employment decisions and in schools. These harms disproportionately impact religious minorities, the nonreligious, LGBTQ people, women, and other marginalized communities.

Protecting Our Public Schools: AU is monitoring harmful legislation in the states such as Bible Class bills or student “Religious Liberty Acts” – we frequently provide talking points and analysis to state legislators and stakeholders and mobilize our ally groups and activist leaders around efforts to block these actions. In addition to filing lawsuits when necessary, we also engage in prelitigation work to remedy the overwhelming number of reports about impermissible school-sponsored religious activity.

Preventing Government Funding of Religion: Forcing taxpayers to fund religious activities violates fundamental principles of religious freedom. Each of us should get to decide how and whether to support religion. Since its founding, AU has fought to ensure taxpayer funds are not funneled to houses of worship for clergy salaries, upkeep, or other non-secular uses. AU is a leading voice on this issue, particularly on private school voucher programs.

Strengthening State Outreach and Grassroots Advocacy: AU’s outreach in the states is engaging the next generation and diverse audiences around our efforts as we raise our profile across the country. We seek to mobilize faith leaders as a critical, influential voice in support of religious freedom and to empower youth leaders to champion our issue in their communities.

High-Impact Litigation and Prelitigation: AU uses high-impact litigation and informal advocacy to address critical questions of religious freedom. Our legal team is known for its expertise on the wide-ranging, unique ways that preserving religious freedom and church-state separation substantially influences law and policy.

Public Policy Solutions: AU confronts federal and state policies that attempt to use religious freedom as a justification for discrimination or denials of service. We provide significant analysis and support to policymakers on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures, with the media, and for allies on church-state separation issues. Our policy team is recognized for its trusted expertise, and we lead a powerful coalition of diverse partners on shared goals.

State Outreach: AU is mobilizing the field to broaden and diversify our audience, reach out to younger generations, and equip faith leaders with powerful information and messaging. A key priority for our outreach and engagement program is to provide in-state volunteers with the tools they need to organize effectively and build campaigns that connect key audiences with our mission.

Strategic Communications: AU’s communications strategies aim to ignite a national movement and elevate our organization’s voice and the visibility of our issue. In addition to maintaining a strong traditional and digital media influence, our rapid response protocols to major events provide trusted public information for a broad range stakeholders.

Given our deep expertise and dedicated supporters across the country who care greatly about our nation’s founding principles of church-state separation, AU is singularly positioned to ignite a national movement and elevate the importance of this issue.

From leading powerful coalitions and educating a range of state and federal stakeholders to modernizing AU’s brand informed by strategic messaging and public opinion polling, we will effectively advocate for laws and policies that embody our country’s promise of religious freedom and equality. Our expertise and analysis are critical to advancing the core constitutional values of the First Amendment where everyone can freely choose a faith and support it voluntarily, or follow no religious or spiritual path at all, and where the government does not promote religion over non-religion or favor one faith over another.

In 2019, AU finalized a five-year growth strategy to ensure that the next generation of leaders understands and values church-state separation and true religious freedom, including the right not to be religious.

Over the years, our efforts have achieved important victories:
• Protected our public schools from impermissible religious instruction and fought against private school voucher programs that primarily fund religious education and can discriminate against students for their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or disability.
• Guaranteed the display of religious emblems and memorial markers for everyone who serves in our military, including minority-faith veterans.
• Exposed the full-frontal assault by Christian nationalists to force a narrow set of religious beliefs into our shared secular laws through Project Blitz.
• Blocked a discriminatory policy that would allow healthcare providers and employees to refuse patients, particularly women and LGBTQ patients, on the basis of the providers’ religious or moral beliefs.
• Led national partnerships such as the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination and the National Coalition for Public Education as well as state partnerships to fight discrimination in the name of religion.
• Presented overwhelmingly successful First Amendment arguments in support of treating religious and secular gatherings the same in government COVID-19 public health orders.