Mr. Major announced the resignation in the House of Commons, and then said he was establishing an independent commission to study standards of conduct for all public officeholders.

No religious test, either an avowal or a repudiation of any religious belief, shall ever be required of any public officeholder in the United States.

He introduced pay for public officeholders, reduced the property qualifications for holding a public office, and created a new definition of citizenship.

Mr. Halpin, at 34, is already a veteran public officeholder.

Elected officials are no more qualified than ordinary voters to assess the private wrongs of public officeholders.

Impeachment is necessarily a public act conducted by public bodies (the Houses of Congress exercising their constitutionally allotted portion of impeachment power) against a public officeholder (here, the President).

In our nation's history, certain states subjected public officeholders to certain religious tests.

The House ethics committee is preparing to consider in an official setting a question that has bedeviled American politics in recent years: What sort of private behavior is unacceptable in a public officeholder?

He has the same birthday as another public officeholder, President Reagan, whom he has tried to telephone each Feb. 6.

The Catholic hierarchy has openly pressured Catholic public officeholders who support abortion rights.