<P> ^ Note 5: The North Carolina Constitution of 1776 disestablished the Anglican church, but until 1835 the NC Constitution allowed only Protestants to hold public office . From 1835 to 1876 it allowed only Christians (including Catholics) to hold public office . Article VI, Section 8 of the current NC Constitution forbids only atheists from holding public office . Such clauses were held by the United States Supreme Court to be unenforceable in the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, when the court ruled unanimously that such clauses constituted a religious test incompatible with First and Fourteenth Amendment protections . </P> <P> ^ Note 6: Religious tolerance for Catholics with an established Church of England was policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule . </P> <P> ^ Note 7: In Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary War, the British ceded both East and West Florida back to Spain (see Spanish Florida). </P> <P> ^ Note 8: Tithes for the support of the Anglican Church in Virginia were suspended in 1776, and never restored . 1786 is the date of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which prohibited any coercion to support any religious body . </P>

When did church and state separate in the us