Art. 610 Religious beliefs or opinions

Lawyers can't attack or boost a witness's credibility just by pointing out their religious beliefs. A witness's faith, or lack of it, can't be used to argue they're more or less honest on the stand.

The idea behind this rule is simple. What someone believes about religion doesn't tell you whether they're telling the truth. Someone who goes to church every week isn't automatically more trustworthy, and someone who doesn't practice any religion isn't automatically less trustworthy. So lawyers aren't allowed to bring up religious beliefs just to make that kind of point to the jury.

There's one exception, covered in a different rule (Article 613). That exception deals with specific situations where religious beliefs might come up for other legitimate reasons, like showing bias. But outside of that narrow exception, a witness's religious views are off limits when it comes to judging whether they're believable.