America once jailed people for blasphemy. Why don't we know?

In 1811, a New York man went to prison for insulting Jesus Christ, and the state's chief justice declared that Americans "profess the general doctrines of Christianity." That wasn't a fringe ruling. It was the law, and it stayed that way in various states for more than a century.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction…”