Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said he does not believe the United States was founded as a Christian nation, arguing instead that the country's identity is rooted in its founding principles and constitutional protections for religious freedom.

Speaking on PBS' "Firing Line With Margaret Hoover," Gorsuch rejected the notion that the nation's origins were tied to a single religion.

"I just don't see it that way," Gorsuch said. "We have a First Amendment, for crying out loud. No established religion."

Instead, Gorsuch said, the United States was founded on the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, including equality, individual rights, and self-government.

"We were never supposed to be a nation that was about one race or one religion," he said. "It was about those ideas."

Gorsuch said those principles, rather than a shared religious identity, have long defined the American experiment. He described the United States as a nation united by its commitment to liberty and the rule of law rather than by ethnicity or faith.

The justice also pointed to the country's early religious diversity, noting that Charles Carroll of Maryland, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, was among the Founding Fathers.

He said the colonies included people of different faiths who had come to North America seeking religious freedom.

Gorsuch said the Constitution's prohibition on establishing a national religion reflects that history and demonstrates that the framers intended to protect religious liberty rather than elevate one faith above others.

His remarks come amid an ongoing debate over the role of religion in American public life. Some conservative political leaders and commentators have argued that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that its laws and institutions were shaped primarily by Christian beliefs.

Gorsuch, however, said the country's defining feature is its commitment to the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, including that all people are created equal and possess inherent rights.

The justice made the comments while discussing his recently released children's book about the Declaration of Independence and the nation's founding ideals.

Gorsuch has written several Supreme Court opinions strengthening constitutional protections for religious exercise, making his latest comments notable because they distinguish robust protections for religion from the idea that the United States was founded as an officially Christian nation.