Article Six of the United States Constitution
Article Six of the United States Constitution says that the Constitution, and any laws or treaties the United States might make, will be the most important laws in the United States. It also says that the United States will pay debts from before the Constitution was written. Finally, it says that members of the United States government have to swear that they will obey the Constitution. However, they will never have to swear that they follow a certain religion.
Before the United States Constitution was written, the United States had another constitution called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles made the states into a Confederation.
The first part of Article Six says that the United States will still honor and pay all of its debts from before the Constitution was written. The Article says that "these debts are as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as [they were] under the Confederation [governed by the Articles of Confederation]."
The second clause of Article Six is often called the "Supremacy Clause." It says that these things are the "supreme" laws in the United States the most powerful and most important laws in the country:
Because these laws are supreme:
For example, part of the Constitution called the Bill of Rights gives people the right to freedom of religion. Because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land:
A few Supreme Court decisions helped make the Supremacy Clause clearer.
The first important case was "Marbury v. Madison" (1803). In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that it had the power to review state courts' decisions, if those decisions seemed like they did not follow the supreme law. This power is called judicial review.
In "Martin v. Hunter's Lessee" (1816), the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was more powerful than the state Supreme Courts. In the case, the Virginia Supreme Court said that a United States Supreme Court decision was unconstitutional, and told all of the Virginia state courts not to obey it. The United States Supreme Court ruled that it had the final say in legal issues that had to do with federal laws not the state courts. If a state court and the United States Supreme Court disagree, the Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land.
Three years later, in "McCulloch v. Maryland" (1819), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot control federal institutions. The state of Maryland had tried to tax a federal bank. The Supreme Court ruled that states cannot tax government property. This was another example of a case where the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the "supreme laws of the land" were more powerful than state laws or court decisions.
In 1824, the Supreme Court ruled on "Gibbons v. Ogden" (1824). The state of New York had given Aaron Ogden a monopoly over the steamboat business in the Hudson River. However, Thomas Gibbons got the same power from a federal government permit. The Supreme Court decided that the federal permit was more powerful than the state monopoly. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall wrote:
Finally, in "Reid v. Covert" (1957), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no branch of the United States government can be given extra powers by a treaty, if those powers were not given to it by the Constitution. This case showed that the Constitution could even limit the power of treaties, and was truly the supreme law of the land.
The last part of Article Six is sometimes called the "No Religious Test Clause."
This clause says that people have to swear to support the Constitution if they are:
Congress gets to decide the exact words in this oath to support the Constitution. However, in this oath, they cannot require a "religious test." This means they cannot make a person swear that they follow a certain religion.
Under this clause, Congress may include the words "so help me God" in the oath. However, a person cannot be required to say those words. A person cannot be required to swear or say anything about religion in order to work for the United States government.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy was running for President. If he were elected, he would be the first Catholic president ever. Many people were unsure that Americans should elect a Catholic as president. This raised the question of whether Americans not their government were requiring a "religious test" for their President. Would they require that a President be a Protestant in order to get elected?
On September 12, 1960, Kennedy talked about this issue directly in his :
Kennedy won the election.
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