It is wise to recall why we celebrate the beginning of the United States on July 4, 1776, and not a dozen or so years later when the requisite number of states ratified the Constitution.

The Constitution was made for the Declaration, Lincoln reminded us, not the other way round.

Why is this significant? The Declaration of Independence explains why America exists; the Constitution --- subtracting nothing from its collective genius --- merely accomplishes the how.

The Constitution is a means to accomplish the Declaration's ends --- you know those "self-evident truths" by which we were able to deduce inalienable rights and equality of citizenship only because we also presupposed a Creator's existence.

Given the presuppositions laid out in the nation's birth certificate, it is troubling to witness the lengths to which some repeatedly make war against these foundational premises.

Michael Newdow, who went all the way to the Supreme Court unsuccessfully trying to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, is back again --- seeking now through others to strike those historically essential words.

The American Civil Liberties Union, on a nationwide campaign to topple 10 Commandments' monuments, has intimidated Los Angeles County to remove from its seal a tiny cross representing the enormous contribution of the Franciscan missions to California's settlement. That the religious symbol on the Los Angeles emblem was overwhelmed by such other symbols as a pagan goddess and the Hollywood Bowl didn't matter.

And for the last 17 years, San Diego's war memorial --- a 43-foot Latin Cross on Mt. Soledad --- has been under siege. Indeed, unless a last-minute appeal brings unexpected success, the cross atop this mountain for close to a century will be destroyed by court order Aug. 2, 2006.

The destruction of the Mt. Soledad cross is just the latest severance of the Declaration from the Constitution. Principles of personal religious freedom in state and federal constitutions are being deployed not to accommodate faith, but to banish all reminder of it.

The legal legerdemain that permits this is especially problematic in states like California that purport to protect individual rights even more than the federal Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution does, importantly, secure the individual freedom to believe or not. Thus, as originally understood, our federal charter ensures that there is no national church, no legal coercion of belief or practice and no legally enforced favoritism of one faith over another.

The Mt. Soledad cross offends none of these principles. No one is forced under law to do or believe anything.

The federal Constitution allows any mistaken endorsement to be resolved easily by transferring the cross site to a private nonprofit organization that would post a simple notice of its ownership and maintenance. This is in the best spirit of religious accommodation.

By contrast, California's constitution, in the name of granting more rights, is an engine demanding the erasure of religious reference in the public square. Under the U.S. Constitution, one generally cannot prohibit a religious display on private property. Yet several times the courts have construed the state constitution to deny just that.

In this Catch-22 universe, the city can neither display a cross itself nor transfer it into private hands, the transfer being claimed as an impermissible accommodation.

California is not alone. State constitutions have been construed to preclude the burial of unborn children at a location where a religious observance would be made; the use of community preservation funds to maintain decidedly historical church structures; and even to prohibit public school purchase of a holiday video since it included a parade with Christian themes.

The Mt. Soledad cross should not be pulled down in August. State constitutions ought not be understood to deny religious expression permitted by the federal Constitution.

From a Catholic perspective, the "creature disappears without his Creator."

From an American perspective, a nation's reason for being also disappears when she forsakes her founding premises.

Douglas W. Kmiec is dean of Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington and a monthly columnist for Catholic News Service.