"We don't have religious tests here.
We don't have religious tests to our compassion".
The wall at the border, the religious tests for immigrants: Could he really mean that?
In our nation's history, certain states subjected public officeholders to certain religious tests.
We don't have religious tests here," said the president whose Kenyan grandfather converted to both Christianity and Islam.
At a time when all but two states required religious tests for office, the Constitution prohibited them.
Many opponents of the Constitution wanted religious tests that would keep pagans, deists, "Mahometans" and "Popish priests" from holding office.
In fact, the framers went to the trouble to prohibit religious tests for qualification for any political office.
In his confirmation hearings, he circumnavigated questions about religious tests by saying that some people had a religion that involved killing and those people ought to stay out.
Presidential candidates have proposed building walls along the nation's borders, applying religious tests at immigration centers, and deporting as many as eleven million undocumented immigrants.
