Lawsuit threatened over atheist councilman in North Carolina.
Cecil Bothwell was recently sworn in as an Asheville City Councilman in direct contravention of the North Carolina constitution. Councilor Bothwell happens to be an atheist and the North Carolina state constitution disqualifies officeholders “who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”
As you’d expect the conservative religious nuts are up in arms over this turn of events and are threatening to take the city to the courts. Their chance of success is about as close to zero as you can get, since the North Carolina constitution violates the US Constitution, which requires that there be no religious test for any public office; apparently the US founding fathers had this thing about the separation of Church and State.
NC is not the only US state to have such discriminatory rules in its law books. Arkansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, also have similar unenforceable laws barring atheists from holding public office.
(via evangotlib:atheistramblings)
