person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any ministry, religious sect, or denomination, against his consent; nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. ARTICLE XI.- EDUCATION. SECTION 8. Neither the Legislative Assembly, nor any county, city, town, or school district, or other public corporations, shall ever make, directly or indirectly, any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, or make any grant of lands or other property in aid of any church, or for any sectarian purpose, or to aid in the support of any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary, scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination whatever. SECTION 9. No religious or partizan test or qualification shall ever be required of any person as a condition of admission into any public educational institution of the State, either as teacher or student; nor shall attendance be required at any religious service whatever, nor shall any sectarian tenets be taught in any public educational institution of the State; nor shall any person be debarred admission to any of the collegiate departments of the university on account of sex. NEBRASKA. ARTICLE I. BILL OF RIGHTS. SECTION 4. All persons have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship against his consent, and no preference shall be given by law to any religious society; nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted. No religious test shall be required as a qualification for office, nor shall any person be incompetent to be a witness on account of his religious belief; but nothing herein shall be construed to dispense with oaths and affirmations. Religion, morality, and knowledge, however, being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship, and to encourage schools and the means of instruction. ARTICLE VIII. EDUCATION. SECTION 11. No sectarian instruction shall be allowed in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by the public funds set apart for educational purposes; nor shall the State accept any grant, conveyance, or bequest of money, lands, or other property, to be used for sectarian purposes. Ratified 1864. Religious liberty. Sectarian instruction prohibited. State funds not to be misap propriated. Ratified 1902. Rights of conscience. Religious liberty. Establishment of state religion. NEVADA. ARTICLE I. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. SECTION 4. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this State; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of his religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State. ARTICLE XI.- EDUCATION. SECTION 9. No sectarian instruction shall be imparted or tolerated in any school or university that may be established under this Constitution. SECTION 10. No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, county, or municipal, shall be used for sectarian purposes. NEW HAMPSHIRE. PART I. BILL OF RIGHTS. ARTICLE 4. Among the natural rights, some are in their very nature unalienable, because no equivalent can be given or received for them. Of this kind are the rights of conscience. ARTICLE 5. Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and reason; and no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate for worshiping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his religious profession, sentiments, or persuasion, provided he doth not disturb the public peace or disturb others in their religious worship. ARTICLE 6. As morality and piety, rightly grounded on evangelical principles, will give the best and greatest security to government, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to due subjection; and as a knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated through a society by the institution of the public worship of the Deity, and of public instruction in morality and religion; Therefore, to promote these important purposes, the people of this State have a right to empower, and do hereby fully empower, the Legislature to authorize, from time to time, the several towns, parishes, bodies corporate, Protestant or religious societies within this State, to make adequate provision, at religion established. their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality.' 1 This article, taken from the Constitution ratified in 1792, is a relic of the old colonial religious establishments. It is sectarian, in that it provides for the "support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns, parishes, bodies corporate, or religious societies, shall at all times have the exclusive right of electing their own public teachers, and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance. And no person, or any one particular religious sect or denomination, shall ever be compelled to pay toward the support of the teacher or teachers of another persuasion, sect, or denomination. And every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves quietly and as good subjects of the State, shall be equally under the protection of the law; and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law. And nothing herein shall be understood to affect any former contracts made for the support of the ministry; but all such contracts shall remain and be in the same state as if this Constitution had not been made. NEW JERSEY. ARTICLE 1.- RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES. Ratified Aug. 13, 1844. Religious Three. No person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of liberty. his own conscience; nor under any pretense whatever be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his faith and judgment; nor shall any person be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or has deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform. Four. There shall be no establishment of one religious sect in Religious preference to another; no religious test shall be required as a qualifi- preferences prohibited. cation for any office or public trust; and no person shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account of his religious principles. NEW MEXICO. ARTICLE II. BILL OF RIGHTS. Adopted Sept., 1890. Religious SECTION 14. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, is hereby liberty. 66 religion, and morality." It thus virtually establishes Protestantism as the state religion, and empowers the Legislature to "make adequate provision' for the support and maintenance" of its public teachers. In this connection read Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance," ante page 119. Coming from a State with virtually an established religion, it is perhaps not so surprising that Senator Blair, in 1888, proposed a strict and sweeping national Sunday law, and an educational amendment to the Constitution of the United States virtually establishing the Christian religion as the national religion. See pages 360, 364. Polygamy prohibited. Separation of schools from sectarian instruction. School funds not to be used for sectarian purposes. American principles to be taught. Religious tests prohibited. Guaranty of religious liberty. guaranteed, and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness or a juror on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief, but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify polygamous practices or other acts inconsistent with morality or the peace or safety of the State, nor permit any person, organization, or association, directly or indirectly to aid or abet, counsel or advise any person to commit bigamy or polygamy, or any other crime. Bigamy and polygamy are forever prohibited. SECTION 26. The natural right of the people to one day of rest in every seven is hereby acknowledge'. ARTICLE IX. EDUCATION. SECTION 1. Provision shall be made by law for the establishment and maintenance of a uniform system of public schools, which shall be open to and sufficient for the education of all the children in the State, and shall be under the absolute control of the State, and free from sectarian or church control; and no other or different schools shall ever receive any aid or support from public funds. No sectarian tenet, creed, or church doctrine shall be taught in the public schools. . SECTION 2. But no part of such [school] funds, nor of any other funds created or authorized by law for educational purposes, shall ever be applied toward the maintenance, support, or aid of any school or other institution in the management of which any religious or other sect has any part, or which is not under the absolute control of the State. The provisions of this and the last preceding section are hereby declared to be irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of this State. SECTION 6. Provision shall be made by law for teaching the principles of the Constitutions of the United States and of this State in the common schools. All teachers in the public schools shall be citizens of the United States, properly qualified, and persons of good moral character. SECTION 7. No religious test shall ever be required of any person as a condition of admission into any public educational institution of the State, either as teacher or student; and no teacher or student of any such institution shall ever be required to attend or participate in any religious service whatever; nor shall any distinction or classification of pupils be made on account of race or color. ARTICLE XVIII. COMPACT WITH THE UNITED STATES. SECTION 3. Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of this State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious establishment. No religious test shall be required for any office or for any vote at any election; nor shall any person be incompetent to testify on account of his or her opinions on matters of religious belief, nor be questioned in any court touching such opinions so as to affect the weight of his or her testimony. Religious SECTION 3. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall for- liberty. ever be allowed in this State to all mankind; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State. ARTICLE IX.- EDUCATION. State not to support denomina tional SECTION 4. Neither the State nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination and inspection, of any school or institution of schools. learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught. NORTH CAROLINA. ARTICLE 1. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. SECTION 26. All men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority should, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience. In effect July 1, 1902. Religious liberty. Religious tions. ARTICLE VI. SUFFRAGE AND ELIGIBILITY TO OFFICE. SECTION 8. The following classes of persons shall be disqualified for office: First, all persons who shall deny the being of Almighty disqualificaGod; second, all persons who shall have been convicted or confessed their guilt on indictment pending, and whether sentenced or not, or under judgment suspended, of any treason or felony, or of any other crime for which the punishment may be imprisonment in the penitentiary, since becoming citizens of the United States, or of corruption or malpractice in office, unless such person shall be restored to the rights of citizenship in a manner prescribed by law.1 1 This article, by reductio ad absurdum, makes the injustice of disqualifying atheists from holding public trusts peculiarly manifest. "Persons who shall have been convicted of treason, perjury, or of any other infamous can hold office when "legally restored to the rights of citizenship; crime Absurdity of disqualifying atheists. |