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With centuries of persecution to inform them, our nation’s founders knew the perils that came from the unwholesome union of government and religion. And so they set down “freedom of religion” foremost among the first of the 10 amendments to the Constitution that are known collectively as the Bill of Rights.

The First Amendment did more than protect the free exercise of religion: It declared that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” — that is, it barred the government from adopting or otherwise endorsing a specific faith.

Over time, that freedom for the people and that constraint on government have come to cover governments at the state and local levels, including public school districts.

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From the beginning of the republic, those who forgot the lessons of the past, or preferred to ignore them, have sought to chip away at the First........

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