The following states bar atheists from public office!

[cynatnite]

Arkansas
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Maryland

I honestly had no idea until just now during a google search. As an atheist, I am offended. Discrimination is common...but I didn't have a clue that it was sanctioned by these states.

Why hasn't the ACLU sued? Do they need an atheist to get removed from public office before challenging or what?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists#State_constitutions

[davidinalameda]

1. did you miss this part of the article

Some state constitutions in the US require a religious test as a qualification for holding public office or being a witness, though a unanimous 1961 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Torcaso v. Watkins held that the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution override the state requirements.

[cynatnite]

4. The ones I mentioned still have those laws in the books...

despite that. Arkansas has on the books that atheists cannot testify in court.

http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/ar-constitution/arcart19/arcart19-1.htm

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Just because they are on the books doesn't mean that they are enforced

The SCOTUS makes it so that the laws cannot be enforced. Those states just haven't bothered taking them off the books yet.

[davidinalameda]

8. those laws aren't enforced

the states can't deny atheists anything

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. Um, why the hell does the SC rely on the Bill of Rights? The state constitutions violate Article I

No religious test shall be required of any public office under this constitution.

Relying on the Bill of Rights implies that state constitutions can be
created that violate the Amendments but that these provisions can be
ignored at the discretion of a judge.

But Article I is part of the originally signed constitution itself and
you'd think any State rules would pertain to that, and not just be
subordinate to it.

The Amendments mostly pertain to the Federal Gov't and the citizens'
relationship to it, right?

If state constitutions can deviate from the federal constitutions,
why aren't we allowed to have state constitutions that deviate from the archaic US republican legislative system?

That being said, there are many old laws and even probably colonial-era
State Constitutional measures that got carried over despite the US
Constitution as dead letters. When did Christmas get legalized in
Massachusetts, formally?

There's a lot of stuff in common law that carries over, too which may or may not jibe with the bill of rights, although I suspect common law does more to increase our rights since the Bill of Rights SPECIFICALLY refers to the implied rights of the people as upheld by centuries of common law.

[Selatius]

2. Edit: Nevermind. n/t

[upi402]

3. Hello Jesus Taliban, and

Good bye America good night.

[cynatnite]

5. Atheists cannot testify in court in the state of Arkansas n/t

[O.M.B.inOhio]

6. That's to protect them from bursting into flames upon contact with the Holy Bible.

But can Satanists testify?

[davidinalameda]

9. only if the Bible is held upside down