Officially, the United States has no religious test for elected officials. The prohibition is right there in Article VI, section 3 of the Constitution: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Accordingly, the government may not prevent an individual from seeking or holding office because of their particular religious faith or lack thereof.

Voters, however, are an entirely different matter. Since 2000, more than two-thirds of Americans have told Pew pollsters that they want the President to be a person of faith, which effectively imposes a test of religious belief for candidates. And some voters go even further—often explicitly encouraged by their religious leaders—by reserving their support for candidates who openly profess theological beliefs similar to their own.

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