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The No Religious Test Clause of the United States Constitution is a clause within Article VI, Clause 3: "Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ...
Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court reaffirmed that the United States Constitution prohibits states and the federal government from requiring any kind of religious test for public office, in this case as a notary public.
Neither protected the civil rights safeguarded by the Constitution from the authorities of the individual states of the United States, as the Constitution was only deemed to apply to the central government of the country. The state governments were therefore able to legally exclude persons from holding public offices on religious grounds. [2]
The no religious test clause of the U.S. constitution states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Although it has become tradition for US presidents to end their Presidential Oath with "so help me God", this is not required by the Constitution .
The United States Constitution and its amendments comprise hundreds of clauses which outline the functioning of the United States Federal Government, the political relationship between the states and the national government, and affect how the United States federal court system interprets the law. When a particular clause becomes an important ...
Many U.S. states including New Jersey, [4] Delaware [5] and Virginia [6] explicitly ban the usage of religious tests in their own constitutions. Eight states continue to have a religious test in their constitutions, but the clause is inoperable and unenforceable because of the 1961 Supreme Court decision. [7]
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The No Religious Test Clause of Article VI states "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." [134] In Fitzgerald v. Green (1890) and Bush v. Gore (2000), the Supreme Court held that presidential electors are state government officials rather than federal government officials.