A unanimous decision by the United States Supreme Court striking down the requirement in the Constitution of the State of Maryland that officeholders declare their “belief in God,” was described by the American Jewish Congress today as a major victory for “religious liberty and the separation of church and state.”
In handing down the decision, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed a previous lower court ruling against Roy R. Torcaso, whose commission as a notary public was withheld because he refused to sign the state oath declaring his belief in God. Mr. Torcaso’s chief attorney was Leo Pfeffer, general counsel of the American Jewish Congress.
Justice Hugo Black declared in a majority opinion that “we repeat and again reaffirm that neither a state nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person to ‘profess a belief or a disbelief in any religion.'” Justices Felix Frankfurter and John M. Harlan went along with the judgment but did not join the opinion.
In hailing the decision, the American Jewish Congress declared that “we are deeply gratified at the court’s ruling that any religious test for public office violates the most fundamental principle of American democracy–that a man’s religious beliefs or disbeliefs are in no way subject to government control.”
Other states requiring a belief in the existence of a supreme being as a qualification for public office are Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
