No Religious Test Shall Ever Be Required

The Text

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

What It Says

Every federal and state officer swears to support the Constitution. No one may be required to profess a religious belief in order to hold federal office.

What It Protects Against

Religious qualification for public office. Several states maintained such tests when this was written, and the clause bars the federal government from doing the same regardless of which belief happens to be dominant.

Sourced to a ratification-era document. See Contemporaneous Defense below.

Problem Addressed

Religious tests for office were standard in England and in a number of American states at the time of the Convention, excluding Catholics, Jews, and dissenters from public trust.

Contemporaneous Defense

The clause was debated at the North Carolina ratifying convention in July 1788, where its defenders argued that a religious test would exclude honest men and that federal office should turn on the oath to the Constitution rather than on creed.