# Nicholson v. Board of Commissioners of the Alabama State Bar Ass'n

> District Court, M.D. Alabama · February 1, 1972 · 338 F. Supp. 48

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9732522

## Case

- **Full name:** Hugh P. NICHOLSON, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF the ALABAMA STATE BAR ASSOCIATION Et Al., Defendants
- **Court:** District Court, M.D. Alabama
- **Decided:** February 1, 1972
- **Citations:** 338 F. Supp. 48; 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15297
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Johnson
- **Judges:** Rives, Johnson, Varner
- **Cited by:** 9 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9732522

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that requiring a Bar applicant to take an oath ending with “so help me God” would abridge his right to a free exercise of his religious beliefs

## Opinion text

JOHNSON, District Judge
(specially concurring):
While I concur in the result reached by Judges Rives and Varner, I do not subscribe to the reasoning that provides the basis for the conclusion or the conclusion that the phrase of Title 46, section 39 of the Code of Alabama, “so help me God” constitutes a prohibition of the free exercise of religion in violation of the Constitution of the United States.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9732522. Public record. Not legal advice.