Roy Torcaso 1911-2007 -RIP- Hero of Separation of Church & State.

Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961) was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court reaffirmed that the US Constitution prohibited the states from requiring any kind of religious test for public office.

In the early 1960s, the Governor of Maryland appointed Roy Torcaso as a notary public. At the time, Maryland required "a declaration of belief in the existence of God" (Maryland Declaration of Rights, Article 37) in order for a person to hold "any office of profit or trust in this State" .

Torcaso, an atheist, refused to make such a statement, and his appointment was consequentially revoked. Torcaso, believing his constitutional rights to freedom of religious expression had been infringed, filed suit in a Maryland Circuit Court, only to be rebuffed; the Circuit Court rejected his claim, and Maryland's Court of Appeals held that the requirement for a declaration of belief in God as a qualification for office was self-executing.

The Court of Appeals justified its decision:

"The petitioner is not compelled to believe or disbelieve, under threat of punishment or other compulsion. True, unless he makes the declaration of belief, he cannot hold public office in Maryland, but he is not compelled to hold office."
Torcaso took the matter to the United States Supreme Court, where it was heard on April 24th, 1961.

“We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person ‘to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.’ Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against nonbelievers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs.”




Despite the decisive opinion in Torcaso’s favor, the issue of religious tests for public office still pops up from time to time. Maryland and six other states (Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina) still retain religious qualifications for public office in their state constitutions. These provisions are dead letters thanks to Roy’s case, but they remain on the books.


Roy Torcaso died June 9. He was 96 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torcaso_v._Watkins

http://blog.au.org/2007/06/12/remembering-roy-maryland-man-who-challenged-religious-test-dies-at-age-96/

I wonder how Mr. Torcaso would fare before today's Supremes.