North Carolina’s Constitution says that citizens are not eligible for elected public office if they “deny the being of Almighty God.” Six other states have similar provisions in their Constitutions: Arkansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Recently, Asheville, North Carolina, elected Cecil Bothwell to the city council. He considers himself an atheist. Local activist H. K. Edgerton is threatening to sue the city for violating the State Constitution. See this story.
The U.S. Constitution says that no religious test may ever be imposed as a condition for holding public office. Edgerton quite properly says that if the North Carolina Constitution violates the U.S. Constitution, then the North Carolina Constitution should be changed, but in the meantime, he wants the state Constitution enforced.
The 1st Amdt applies to the MORON States via 14th Amdt, Sec. 1 — since 1868 — a mere 141 years.
One more case for suing the MORON State officials involved for BIG $$$ damages to bankrupt them — since the MORONS in the States apparently pay NO attention to what the Supremes have to say about constitutional law cases.
If its good for Texas, why not for North Carolina?
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American
Independent Party.
— the US constitution says that POTUS/CINC must be a “natural born citizen” — that and a dollar will now only get you a cup a coffee (and maybe even not that for long — once the foreign agent controlled Federal Reserve forces the dollar to collapse).
There are no more constitutional rights and prohibition protections including state enforced religion.
He who has the power of the US executive / government (including probable foreign agents) set the enforcement of laws/rules and no US citizen apparently can no longer have any right to expect constitutional protections of any kind — save for the power of those in control of the military and DOJ related US executive power.
The US constitution was nice while it lasted.
Grand fathered natural born citizens Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and George Washington & Co. are probably rolling in their collective graves.
I wonder what the grounds would be for a suit IF a state constitution had a provision that prohibited office holders from having a belief in a deity?
To natural born citizen party @3:
Some of the Founding Fathers were buried in collective graves? I thought each would have gotten his own plot.
To D. Frank Robinson:
That suit would have the same grounds as this one. A state law prohibiting office holders from having a belief in a deity would be struck down because it violates the U.S. Constitution.
However, I’m not sure that the U.S. Constitution’s “no religious test” clause (which is in Article 6, Clause 3) is the reason why the North Carolina no-atheist-office-holders law will be thrown out, as is implied by the above blog post. I think that such state laws have previously been ruled unconstitutional based on First/Fourteenth Amendment grounds.
THIS IS VERY STUPID THEIR IS NO SUCH THING IS GOD THAT MAN MADE BELIVED TO TAKE CONTROL OF PEOPLES MINDS FOR POWER,THAT WHY WE HAVE THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONAL BECAUSE STATES LAWS IS MADE FOR RACISM
@Helen: Huh? If all caps is used in a post don’t forget to use lots of exclamation points too.
The no religious test clause most likely was originally taken to mean no denominational test and also was only to be applied to federal office as 9 of the 13 original states had state religions at the time that he Constitution and Bill of Right were ratified.
The only problem I have with such requirements is that they don’t go far enough. They should require that office holders have a personal relationship with their God. We need more people in office who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior…people like Sarah Palin. Get rid of the Muslims, the Jews and the Papists and this country will start to turn around.
citizen1 @8:
I don’t think the “no religious test” clause has ever been applied to the states.
The major case on this point is Torcaso v. Watkins. In 1961 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Maryland law that sought to ban nontheists from holding public office.
The Court based its ruling on a First/Fourteenth Amendment argument.
The Court declined to consider whether the “no religious test” clause in Article 6 applied to the states, since it had already decided the case on other grounds.
So am I to understand that I am perfectly qualified to serve in public office in the states of Arkansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and North Carolina as long as I do not “deny the being of Almighty God.”?
Well okay, but Zeus is an Almighty God, as is the Hindu god Ram and a myriad of others.
As I’m certain it is not written “the Almighty Christian God,” (Christians not very good at conceiving of the fact that others might have their own gods as well)
I should be well qualified picking from any of these . . . does anyone know, is the Flying Spaghetti Monster of the male gender??
Nice, Jimmie G . . . if only claiming to have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour is the qualification you can pick your candidates off of death row as well . . .well except for that pesky felony rule thing. Thanks for not including us Pagans in the first cull.
In all seriousness though, these types of offensive discriminatory laws have no place in our great nation and need to be stricken right away. They are not constitutional and a nation seeking to spread democracy in other lands where religious tests cause the problem has no business entertaining their existence at home.
11 –
It goes without saying that atheists should have no rights in modern America. Bush’s father said as much. Atheists holding office in America would be like members of the Taliban being appointed US District Court justices.
Go Sarah!
Edgerton wants us to violate provisions of the US Constitution, highest law of the land, dismiss the founding fathers’ wisdom, and destroy the widespread spirit of civic participation upon which our democracy depends. Why does he hate America so much?
13 –
Just wondering… were there any Jews or Muslims at the constitutional convention?
JimmieG,
There were certainly some non-Christians there.
Perhaps more relevantly, there were lots of people there who supported the separation of church and state.
15 –
Name them.
It doesn’t matter of how you type a comment, its how you feel about the situation; to those preacher who felt a little personal about her comment should feel like a jack ass because there is no such a thing as God, it is just a figment of all your imagination and by the way spell god back ward you bunch of idiot, by the way this is just a way to indoctrinate people. Further more do your research separation between state and church, beside federal trump state law anytime so leave the man alone and let him do his job.
This part of the NC Constitution is perfectly permissible, as stated in an above comment, the federal government is forbidden from having any entanglement in religion, whereas the State’s never were. I think the State’s need to stay out of religion, but this part of the NC State Constitution doesn’t cross that boundary. It is simply a requirement that they believe in SOME Almighty God. For an atheist, they themselves may be that Almighty God and that qualifies, because no distinction is given. This is not a religious test, as it requires no specific sect, denomination or religious belief in general to meet the requirement but a simple admitted belief in a final authority. I as a Independent Baptist, strongly believe in Almight God, and only one true God, that of Jesus Christ in the Bible. But, by our NC State Constitution it is permissible even under this wording for an atheist to hold office, and or any person of another religious, creed or sect.