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To: Claud
I'm no Constitutional Scholar, but the reason I'm sticking on this point is that it's hard for me to see how the religious tests for office that clearly existed in the Federal period were not struck down immediately by Article 4. Also...how would article 4 have passed in the first place if there were states who had such tests for office?

For it to be struck down someone would have to sue and the matter taken through the judiciary to the Supreme Court. For the first 150 or so years there was a bias towards Christianity and such laws didn't attract much opposition, if any. Things have changed.

28 posted on 12/11/2009 6:52:46 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
For the first 150 or so years there was a bias towards Christianity and such laws didn't attract much opposition, if any.

Hmmm...I doubt that. I am a Catholic, and I know for one the Catholic religion wasn't even legal in most of the colonies until the late 1700s. I'd have to do research, but I'm sure some of these laws targeted Catholics as well as Quakers, Unitarians, and other non-mainstream Protestant groups.

There have to be some legal opinions on this from the time period.

30 posted on 12/11/2009 6:59:04 AM PST by Claud
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