The constitution says "Congress shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion..." and that's all. It has, or should have, no bearing at all on the actions of state legislatures; if I recall correctly, at least one state still had an official church at the time the Constitution was ratified.
Furthermore, it has essentially nothing to do with the Fourteenth amendment, except maybe a few idiots who tried to use religion to justify racism.
The Constitution does not explicitly state it, but the Supreme Court has a long history of rulings interpreting that part of the Constitution which have explicitly dealt with it, going back to the 1800s. Those cases include Reynolds v. U.S., Everson v. Board of Education, Engel v. Vitale, Epperson v. Arkansas, and Lemon v. Kurtzman. In a common law system, as that used in the US, these rulings have the force of law. As they were Supreme Court rulings, they apply to the entire country and overrule any state laws.
> Furthermore, it has essentially nothing to do with the Fourteenth amendment, except maybe a few idiots who tried to use religion to justify racism.
Read what I wrote again. I wasn't suggesting any connection between separation of church and state and the Fourteenth Amendment. I was merely giving an example of when the federal government directly intervened in the public school system and overrode state authority in order to enforce federal laws and judicial rulings.
> It has, or should have, no bearing at all on the
> actions of state legislatures;
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Ri...
Separation of church and state is a Constitutional matter, and therefore enforced by the federal government. Individual states don't get a say. If they refuse, the federal government will seize control.
This is what happened with racial desegregation of schools. After the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that "separate but equal" was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to physically block black students from entering the white school (which had already admitted them). President Eisenhower sent in Army troops and federalized the Arkansas National Guard, overriding Faubus's authority.