Religious qualifications for public office in the United States
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Religious qualifications for public office in the United States have always been prohibited at the
History
Colonial period
The history of religious qualifications for public office in the United States dates back to the British colonial period. The history of anti-Semitism in Europe dates back to Roman times. The Jews were expelled from England when King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion of 1290. While some returned once Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell encouraged Jews to return to Britain in the 1650s, they remained a discriminated minority within the United Kingdom. England experienced multiple waves of strong anti-Catholicism after the Reformation, and the Anglican faith became the state religion of the English Kingdom after supplanting a period of Catholicism. Ruled by the British Empire until 1776, colonial America was dominated by English political and religious influence. In Maryland, Anglicanism was established as the official religion from 1702. The colony's Catholic subjects were barred from both voting and holding public office, although the right to worship privately was granted in 1712.[1]
After independence
Religious requirements for political office in the United States were unconstitutional on the national level of the
As a result of the incorporation of the Bill of Rights after the American Civil War, the protections of the Bill of Rights were extended to the individual states on the basis of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
State requirements for political office were not entirely abolished until 1961, when the
Although the Torcaso decision dismissed enforcement of religious requirements for office as unconstitutional in the United States, antiquated provisions barring atheists from occupying political offices were not immediately stricken from state legislation. As a result, a number of lawsuits were initiated after 1961 to secure the right to hold public office without conforming to religious requirements. These cases followed the United States Supreme Court's precedent.
In 1997, the
See also
- Separation of church and state in the United States
- Religious discrimination in the United States
- Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service: Legislation depriving Jews of the right to hold public offices in Nazi Germany.
- Vichy laws on the status of Jews: Legislation depriving Jews of the right to hold public office in Vichy France.
Footnotes
References
- Hennesey, James (1983). A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503268-3.
- Paddington, Arch, Thomas O. Melia, and Jason Kelly (2008). Today's American: How Free? Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-6290-5.