Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday said that the United States government cannot favor one religion over another but that the Constitution does not prohibit the government from preferring religion over secularism, according to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

Scalia made the comments during a speech at the Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana. He said that it is “absurd” to think the Constitution bans the government from supporting religion, according to the Times-Picayune.

“To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from?” he said, according to the Associated Press.

He told the crowd that if American citizens don’t want the government to support religion, then they need to vote on it, according to the Times-Picayune.

“Don’t cram it down the throats of an American people that has always honored God on the pretext that the Constitution requires it,” Scalia said of secularism.

H/t The Hill