Use of thereof in the first amendment

Question

With the recent "attack on Christianity" being reported on certain news channels, I started looking into the cause of such attacks and the reasoning behind them. I began my search at the source of religious freedom in this country, the first amendment of the Constitution. The use of thereof left me with a question concerning exactly what it was replacing.

''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

In the commonly accepted interpretation, it refers to "of religion". But, I read it as "an establishment of religion". This left me a bit puzzled.

When I took the same sentence structure, and replaced "an establishment of religion" with "a capitalization of words". It was clear that with the change, "thereof" did not to refer to the object of the prepostion.

So, here I am asking to what thereof refers when used properly. Does it refer to a direct object just as "establishment" or "capitalization"? Or can it also refer to the object of a preposition such as "religion", as the common interpretation seems to suggest?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Raphael

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

I don't think one can "freely exercise an establishment". There's something wrong about the way those words go together. It's something like "employ a mystery" or "diversify sympathy". One wonders what it could mean.

So I think "thereof" can only mean "of religion".

CJ

Raphael · Answer

Using the words together, and having them sound proper, would depend on what definition of establishment was intended. For example, if the intended meaning was to refer to an established code of laws (of religion), it makes sense to say freely exercise an establishment. On the other hand, it would not make sense if it was to refer to a public or private institution or a state church.

The first section, called the establishment clause, is commonly interpretted to refer to something more than a state religion or the buildings of a religion. Given this common interpretation it would be accurate to define it as "something established : as a : a settled arrangement; especially : a code of laws." (From www.m-w.com)

But, I was attempting to remove those predefined interpretations from my examination of the sentence.

Look at the following sentences:

''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

''Congress shall make no law respecting a harassment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

''Congress shall make no law respecting a capitalization of words,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

Shouldn't thereof refer to the same object in all three of these sentences since they have identical structures? English was not one of my favorite subjects. Is there a fallacy in my logic?

CalifJim · Answer

Shouldn't thereof refer to the same object in all three of these sentences since they have identical structures?

No, certainly not. Finding the antecedent of a pronomial expression (like "thereof") is often a matter of semantics -- one's feel for the meaning of the words. The syntax alone cannot always uniquely determine the antecedent. Note how "it" references different antecedents in these sentence pairs, even though the structures are identical.

We promised to have a cake brought to the party, but it never arrived.
We promised to have a cake brought to the party, but it was poorly attended anyway.

They cleared the brush from the road and then burned it.
They cleared the brush from the road and then resurfaced it.

Raphael · Answer

That makes sense.

Would you agree that it is possible that thereof referring to an establishment could depend on the intended definition of establishment? Or am I off base there as well?

CalifJim · Answer

Yes, I think it could, but if I follow you correctly, you want to say that if "an establishment" is taken to mean "something established", "a settled arrangement", or "a code of laws", then the antecedent of "thereof" is more likely to be "an establishment" than "religion".

This leads me to think about sentences such as the following:

''Congress shall make no law respecting something established of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

''Congress shall make no law respecting a settled arrangement of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

''Congress shall make no law respecting a code of laws of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...''

In spite of the awkwardness of these sentences (Let's overlook that for the moment.), this leads me further in this direction:

I'll use only two of the three suggested possibilities.

Does the original in the amendment mean A) or B)?
A) "Congress shall make no law respecting a settled arrangement of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of religion; ...''
B) "Congress shall make no law respecting a settled arrangement of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of a settled arrangement of religion; ...''

Does the original in the amendment mean A) or B)?
A) ''Congress shall make no law respecting a code of laws of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of religion; ...''
B) ''Congress shall make no law respecting a code of laws of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of a code of laws of religion; ...''

OR to return to the original itself:

Does the original in the amendment mean A) or B)?
A) ''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of religion; ...''
B) ''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of an establishment of religion; ...''

In each case, I feel that the difference between A) and B) is negligible.

In brief, if you take "an establishment of religion" to mean something almost exactly like "religion", it doesn't seem to me that it would particularly matter which of the two the word "thereof" refers to. I think it's what's called a distinction without a difference.

Anonymous · Answer

I think there are a couple way to look at this. One is the use of the word 'thereof' and what it means. It is defined as such:
thereof -adverb: of or concerning this, that or it
When the word 'thereof' is used it gets its meaning entirely from the word to which it refers. So in a sense you must ask 'Of what?' in order to understand what it means.

free exercise of what? of religion
What kind of establishment? one of religion
The indefinite articles a and an are defined as such: weakened variation of one; one, lone, single So my use of 'one' should be correct there.

Another thing you must do is put it into context. The Bill of Rights is a document which defines the rights and liberties of the people(individuals) and Congress' limitations on abridging or limiting them. If you read the phrase as such:
B) ''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise of an establishment of religion; ...''
What are the rights of the people with regard to religion? This defines rights and liberties as they apply only to 'establishments' and not individuals. If you also use it that way then there would be no need for the Free Exercise clause. If in the Establishment Clause Congress cannot make law which even respects(concerns, regards, deals with, relates to) 'an establishment of religion' then why would they need to tell us that Congress cannot make law prohibiting 'free exercise of an establishment of religion'? We already know they cannot prohibit 'free exercise of an establishment' because they can't even make law with respect to it! I hope that makes sense.
Also, you could look at The Constitution for other examples of the word 'thereof' and see how it is used.
For example:
Article. I. - The Legislative Branch
Section 2 - The House

"When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof ..."

Executive Authority of what? 'any State'

Section 3 - The Senate

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, (chosen by the Legislature thereof,)"

Legislature of what? 'each State'

"...if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof"

The Executive of what? 'any State'

Section 4 - Elections, Meetings

"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof;""

Legislature of what? 'each State'

Section 8 - Powers of Congress

"To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof,..."

Value of what? 'Money'

"To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

Department or Officer of what? 'the Government of the United States'

Article. II. - The Executive Branch

Section 1 - The President

"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof..."

Legislature of what? 'Each State'

So on and so forth until...
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."
Free exercise of what? 'religion'
I hope this all makes sense.

Use of thereof in the first amendment

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