Amendment II am not a lawyer, nor a legal scholar. The above is the text of the first amendment in the Bill of Rights from the US Constitution. This is the famous 'separation of church and state' amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
As you can plainly see, the amendment does not contain the words "separation of church and state".
My interpretation is that the framers of the Constitution wanted to make sure that the government of the United States did not advocate any single religion, as Great Britain at the time advocated the Church of England. Nor did the framers wish the US to be a theocracy based on any single religion.
I don't believe, however, that this amendment suggests that participation in government required leaving your beliefs on the doorstep (see Article VI). The fact that some advocate all separation, contradicts the second half of the religion standard written in the amendment: "...shall make no law... prohibiting the free exercise thereof".
For further reading, you can start here.
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