[extropy-chat] Atheists barred from office in seven states

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Fri Dec 5 01:16:35 UTC 2003


--- "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience at pobox.com>
wrote:
> Article 6 Section 8 of North Carolina's State
> Constitution
> "Disqualifications of office. The following persons
> shall be disqualified 
> for office: First, any person who shall deny the
> being of Almighty God."
> 
> Article 4 Section 2 of South Carolina's State
> Constitution
> "No person shall be eligible to the office of
> Governor who denies the 
> existence of the Supreme Being; ..."
> 
> I checked and yes, this is accurate.
> 
> The states whose constitutions discriminate against
> atheists are 
> Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina,
> Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 
> Tennessee, and Texas.  Maryland gets bonus points
> for apparently requiring 
> belief in an afterlife, hell, and a male God.
> 
> I think it's time for another federal Constitutional
> amendment.

Nope.  This was prohibited even before the First
Amendment came along - see Article VI of the
Constitution:

> no religious Test shall ever be required as a
> Qualification to any Office or public Trust under
> the United States.  

This applies at all levels of government - federal,
state, local, any any other.  See
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=459&invol=116
for an example of state laws promoting religion
getting struck down for that reason.  Or see
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=367&invol=488
for a more direct example of this kind of religious
requirement for public office being disqualified.

Someone needs to argue this in the courts.  See the
current case over the Pledge of Allegiance...which is
so legally open-and-shut, it's being won by a single
person representing himself despite massive
opposition.  There are times when the law is extremely
clear, and this is one of them.



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