NORTH CAROLINA: ATHEISTS NEED NOT APPLY
Dec. 14th, 2009 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: Opponents of Cecil Bothwell – a freshly elected city council member in Ashville, NC – are claiming he can’t take office because politicians who deny the existence of God are barred from holding office in the state of North Carolina.
Source: the NC state constitution:
Article 6, section 8 of the state constitution says: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”
Which is fun, since (1) Article VI of the US Constitution says: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”, and (2) Maryland had a similar requirement that was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
In 1961.
Anyway, it’s interesting that it took this long for electing atheists to even become an issue in North Carolina, seeing as how the only way it would become an issue at all is if an atheist (1) ran for office and (2) won.
Believe it or else,
This is dF
Source: the NC state constitution:
Article 6, section 8 of the state constitution says: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”
Which is fun, since (1) Article VI of the US Constitution says: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”, and (2) Maryland had a similar requirement that was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
In 1961.
Anyway, it’s interesting that it took this long for electing atheists to even become an issue in North Carolina, seeing as how the only way it would become an issue at all is if an atheist (1) ran for office and (2) won.
Believe it or else,
This is dF
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no subject
on 2009-12-14 04:18 pm (UTC)