Editing No Religious Test Clause (section)

{{Short description|Provision of the United States Constitution}}
{{United States constitutional law}}
The '''No Religious Test Clause''' of the [[Constitution of the United States|United States Constitution]] is a [[List of clauses of the United States Constitution|clause]] within [[Article Six of the United States Constitution|Article VI]], Clause 3: "Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." It immediately follows a clause requiring all federal and state office holders to take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution. This clause contains the only explicit reference to religion in the original seven articles of the U.S. Constitution.

The ban on religious tests contained in this clause protects federal officeholders and employees as well as the officeholders of "State Legislatures, and [...] the several states". This clause is cited by advocates of [[separation of church and state]] as an example of the "[[originalism|original intent]]" of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Framers of the Constitution]] to avoid any entanglement between church and state, or involving the government in any way as a determiner of religious beliefs or practices. This is significant because this clause represents the words of the original Framers, even prior to the [[Establishment Clause]] of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]].