Article II, Section 1, Clause 8: Presidential Oath

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

In Article VI, Clause 3, the requirement is established for all members of Congress, all officers of the judiciary or executive, and their state counterparts to be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution. However, Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 additionally requires Senators to be under (presumably specific and additional) oath or affirmation when sitting to try an impeachment, and this clause gives the specific form of the oath taken by the President.

The specifying of the form of this oath in the Constitution is a safeguard of the independence of the President. Congress is free to choose the form of every other office holder’s oath, so long as the general gist is “to support the Constitution”. Not so the Presidential oath; it is fixed in form and cannot be modified by Congress. Congress cannot modify the oath to constraint the President or otherwise make him more subject to the will of Congress.

The oath or affirmation has, for the most part, been uncontroversial. It is clear that a newly elected President cannot begin his official duties until he is bound by his oath or affirmation. In the case of a President dying in office, being removed by Senate conviction of impeachment, or resigning, the Vice-President is constitutionally authorized to immediately act in his place. However, the Vice-President does not formally become the President, rather than acting President, until the oath or affirmation is administered.

There has been some debate over whether the oath extends the President’s powers, by making him responsible to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution”. A few Presidents have argued so, including Abraham Lincoln, when he suspended habeaus corpus during the Civil War. The idea has never really caught on with constitutional scholars.

The alternative of making a solemn affirming, rather than swearing an oath, was an accommodation to Quakers and other Christian denominations that interpret the New Testament to forbid Christians from taking any oaths. Ironically, neither of the Quaker presidents (Hoover and Nixon) chose to make affirmation rather than taking the oath. Only Franklin Pierce, who was an Episcopalian, chose to make an affirmation rather than take the oath.

In every other oath of federal office, the phrase “so help me God” is added at the end of the oath. The phrase is omitted if the office holder chooses to make an affirmation rather than an oath. Almost all Presidents have chosen to add the words “so help me God” to the Presidential oath of office, though it is not mandated by the Constitution.

It is difficult in our secular age to understand the significance of an oath or affirmation in 1787. In either case, God was being called to witness the sincerity of the person making the oath or affirmation. This was expressed by Justice Joseph Story in 1842:

A President, who shall dare to violate the obligations of his solemn oath or affirmation of office, may escape human censure, nay, may even receive applause from the giddy multitude. But he will be compelled to learn, that there is a watchful Providence, that cannot be deceived; and a righteous Being, the searcher of all hearts, who will render unto all men according to their deserts. Considerations of this sort will necessarily make a conscientious man more scrupulous in the discharge of his duty; and will even make a man of looser principles pause, when he is about to enter upon a deliberate violation of his official oath.

Put in the bluntest possible terms, the person swearing or affirming a thing was inviting God to condemn him to Hell if he willfully broke the oath or violated the affirmation. One wonders if many of our current politicians take their oaths seriously.