kalamazu asks: The really, really ironic thing about Jessica Ahlquist's situation is that Rhode Island was founded on the concept of separation of church and state. Roger Williams was forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for suggesting it, and formed a new colony for not only freedom OF religion, but explicitly for freedom FROM religion. Granted, as far as he was concerned, it was to protect religion from the human judgment of law. The most recent Smithsonian magazine has a great article about it.