President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission is preparing to make recommendations after more than a year of hearings. Commissioners have spoken about their wish lists for what they want to see in the report. They reflect the perspectives of the commissioner's largely conservative evangelical and Catholic membership. One idea is to increase avenues for religious expression in public schools and other public settings. Another is making public money more available to religious organizations. And there's a push for allowing for religious-based exemptions from regulations and classroom lessons. The commissioner's chair has repeatedly said "there is no separation of church and state.”

There’s long been debate over the intentions of America’s founders about the role of religion. That’s been turbocharged with the approaching 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July Fourth. Some Christian activists are redoubling claims that the United States had a Christian founding. But scholars note that there’s no established religion in the Constitution and some of the most influential founders weren't Christian. But most of them also weren’t deists or anti-religious skeptics. The founders believed in prayer and that God was helping the revolutionary cause. Scholars say they created a sort of free market in which American religion has thrived to this day.

A federal appeals court rules that Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, allowing posters of the religious doctrine to go up throughout the state. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said in the decision Tuesday that the law did not violate either the Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The ruling sets up a battle over religion in schools in the U.S. Supreme Court. The law is among the pushes by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public schools. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state.