Source: https://openjurist.org/367/us/488
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 09:50:29+00:00

Document:
Clayton K. WATKINS, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland.
The appellant Torcaso was appointed to the office of Notary Public by the Governor of Maryland but was refused a commission to serve because he would not declare his belief in God. He then brought this action in a Maryland Circuit Court to compel issuance of his commission, charging that the State's requirement that he declare this belief violated 'the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States * * *.'1 The Circuit Court rejected these federal constitutional contentions, and the highest court of the State, the Court of Appeals, affirmed,2 holding that the state constitutional provision is self-executing and requires declaration of belief in God as a qualification for office without need for implementing legislation. The case is therefore properly here on appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1257(2).
When our Constitution was adopted, the desire to put the people 'securely beyond the reach' of religious test oaths brought about the inclusion in Article VI of that document of a provision that 'no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.' Article VI supports the accuracy of our observation in Girouard v. United States, 328 U.S. 61, 69, 66 S.Ct. 826, 829, 90 L.Ed. 1084, that '(t)he test oath is abhorrent to our tradition.' Not satisfied, however, with Article VI and other guarantees in the original Constituion, the First Congress proposed and the States very shortly thereafter adopted our Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment.6 That Amendment broke new constitutional ground in the protection it sought to afford to freedom of religion, speech, press, petition and assembly. Since prior cases in this Court have thoroughly explored and documented the history behind the First Amendment, the reasons for it, and the scope of the religious freedom it protects, we need not cover that ground again.7 What was said in our prior cases we think controls our decision here.
'The 'establishment of religion' clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between church and State."
Appellant also claimed that the State's test oath requirement violates the provision of Art. VI of the Federal Constitution that 'no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.' Because we are reversing the judgment on other grounds, we find it unnecessary to consider appellant's contention that this provision applies to state as well as federal offices.
See, e.g., I Stokes, Church and State in the United States, 358—446. See also cases cited, note 7, infra.
Of course this was long before Madison's great Memorial and Remonstrance and the enactment of the famous Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty, discussed in our opinion in Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 11—13, 67 S.Ct. 504, 509—510, 91 L.Ed. 711.
See, e.g., the opinions of the Court and also the concurring and dissenting opinions in Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 25 L.Ed. 244; Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 10 S.Ct. 299, 33 L.Ed. 637; Cantwell v. State of Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213; West Virginia State Bd. of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628; Fowler v. State of Rhode Island, 345 U.S. 67, 73 S.Ct. 526, 97 L.Ed. 828; Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711; Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 68 S.Ct. 461, 92 L.Ed. 648; McGowan v. State of Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 81 S.Ct. 1101, 1153, 1218, 6 L.Ed.2d 393.
'In short, test-laws are utterly ineffectual: they are no security at all; because men of loose principles will, by an external compliance, evade them. If they exclude any persons, it will be honest men, men of principle, who will rather suffer an injury, than act contrary to the dictates of their consciences. * * *' Quoted in Ford, Essays on the Constitution of the United States, 170. See also 4 Elliott, Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 193.
And another delegate pointed out that Article VI 'leaves religion on the solid foundation of its own inherent validity, without any connection with temporal authority; and no kind of oppression can take place.' 4 Elliot, op. cit., supra, at 194, 200.
Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others. See Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia, 101 U.S.App.D.C. 371, 249 F.2d 127; Fellowship of Humanity v. County of Alameda, 153 Cal.App.2d 673, 315 P.2d 394; II Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences 293; 4 Encyclopaedia Britannica (1957 ed.) 325 327; 21 id., at 797; Archer, Faiths Men Live By (2d ed. revised by Purinton), 120—138, 254—313; 1961 World Almanac 695, 712; Year Book of American Churches for 1961, at 29, 47.
344 U.S. at pages 191—192, 73 S.Ct. at page 219, quoting from United Public Workers of America (C.I.O.) v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75, 100, 67 S.Ct. 556, 570, 91 L.Ed. 754.

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