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Seven US states have clauses in their constitutions that prohibit non-believers from holding public office, but courts have ruled this practice unconstitutional. The US Constitution also prohibits religious tests for public office.
Seven U.S. states—Maryland, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas—have clauses in their state constitutions barring people who don’t believe in God from holding public office. In various legal challenges, state and federal courts have ruled that there can be no religious test for holding public office and that the practice is unconstitutional and discriminatory, but neither state has demonstrated the political will to remove those lines from their state constitutions.
The Constitution says it:
In 1961, the United States Supreme Court heard the case of Roy Torcaso, who refused to say he believed in God to serve as a notary public in Maryland, and ruled in his favor.
The state bans have rarely been invoked since 1992, when Herb Silverman was denied a public notary position in South Carolina. He prevailed in a 1997 South Carolina Supreme Court decision.
Article VI, paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution states that “no religious test shall ever be required as qualification for any public office or trust under the United States.”
