“A.D.” Violating Religious Freedoms?

This 1986 North Carolina case addressed whether the abbreviation “A.D.” (anno domini) on government forms violates the constitution.

Does the use of the abbreviation “A.D.” on government forms violate the constitutional right of a member of the Jewish faith to freely exercise his religion?

‘No,’ concluded a federal district court in North Carolina. The court noted that the abbreviation stands for a Latin phrase meaning “anno domini —  ‘in the year of our Lord,” an expression occurring in the United States Constitution. The court concluded that the “plaintiff asks the court to order the government to strike from its (forms) an abbreviation of a phrase which appears in the highest law of the land, the Constitution, wherein the right to free exercise of religion is established. This the court cannot do.” Ben Miriam v. Office of Personnel Management, 647 F.Supp. 84 (M.C.N.C. 1986).

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