Rule 5.610 Religious beliefs or opinions

Here's a plain-English summary:

A witness's religious beliefs, whether they're religious at all, or what religion they follow, cannot be used in court to make them seem more or less trustworthy. Lawyers cannot bring up someone's faith to suggest they are lying or telling the truth just because of what they believe religiously.

This means that during a trial, no one can ask a witness about their religion to try to convince the jury that person is honest or dishonest. A person's faith, or lack of it, simply has nothing to do with whether their testimony should be believed. Courts keep this kind of information out of the case entirely when it's being used for this purpose.

The idea behind this rule is fairness. People come from many different religious backgrounds, and some have no religion at all. Judging someone's honesty based on their beliefs would be unfair and would have nothing to do with whether they are actually telling the truth about the facts of the case.