Lew, Americans United was originally chartered in 1947 as Protestants and Others United for Separation of Church and State. Yet from its foundation it was widely recognized as an anti-Roman Catholic organization. As Philip Hamburger, Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at the Columbia Law School brilliantly pointed out, the issue of “separation of church and state” has often been used to mask a more covert agenda by nativists, Freemasons, Klansmen, and secularists against parochial schools and Roman Catholicism. Murray N. Rothbard documented this ethnoreligious struggle in his “The Progressive Era and the Family.” The landmark Supreme Court case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters dramatically illustrates this conflict. A major person long associated with the AU group as special counsel and spokesman was the controversial author Paul Blanshard — assistant editor of The Nation magazine, lawyer, atheist, socialist, secular humanist, and from 1949 an outspoken critic of Catholicism. Blanshard’s books include:

• 1949. American Freedom and Catholic Power. Beacon Press.
• 1951. Communism, Democracy, and Catholic Power. Beacon Press.
• 1952. My Catholic Critics. Pamphlet, 52pp. Beacon Press.
• 1954. The Irish and Catholic Power. Beacon Press
• 1958. American Freedom and Catholic Power, Revised 2nd Ed., Beacon Press.
• 1960. God  and Man in Washington. Beacon Press.
• 1961. The Future of Catholic Power. Speech to DAR, Am. United Sep. C & S
• 1962. Freedom and Catholic Power in Spain and Portugal. Beacon Press.
• 1963. Religion and the Schools -the great controversy. Beacon Press.
• 1966. Paul Blanshard on Vatican II. Beacon Press.
• 1973. Personal  and Controversial -an Autobiography. Beacon Press.

Does anyone detect a common theme here? Will Americans United soon draw their collective guns upon Tom Woods?

The Best of Charles Burris