The following excerpt is from AM. Family Assoc. v. City & County of San Francisco, 277 F.3d 1114 (9th Cir. 2002):
It is also common ground for the panel that the Constitution prohibits official disapproval of, or official hostility towards, religion. Just as the Constitution by protecting the free exercise of religion assures the right of an atheist not to be compelled to swear by God, Torcaso v. Watakins, 367 U.S. 488, 495, n.11 (1961), so the Constitution assures religious believers that units of government will not take positions that amount to the establishment of a policy condemning their religious belief.
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