With Justice Roberts' misreading of the constitution at yesterday's inauguration, I thought I'd take a moment to discuss constitutional history. Article II Section 1 of the constitution states the following

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."

You'll notice that there are two parts where Justice Roberts misstated the oath (and President Obama followed along.) The first was "I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully." And the second was "So help me god."

There is argument that George Washington added the words "so help me god" to the end of his oath, but there is little evidence to back that up. Regardless, the person taking the oath has a constitutional right under the first amendment not only to freedom of speech but to freedom of religion and is therefore allowed to add these and any other words to the oath provided the original 35 words are stated in their correct order. The officiant of the swearing-in has no such right as he is acting as an agent of the United States and is injecting religion into a secular ceremony.

This is the basis of a legal action taken against Justice Roberts prior to the event by Michael Newdow and several other individuals and organizations. For more information, listen to the podcast of the Minnesota Atheists' Atheists' Talk radio show from January 4th 2009. In this show, Michael Newdow points out that this is not a case of atheists imposing their religion on the government but a case of keeping the government from imposing their religion on the nation.

When Keith Ellison was elected to the House of Representatives, christian conservatives were up in arms over a Muslim serving the nation along side Christians and Jews. I think they feared that, one day, the Chief Justice might add "so help me Allah" to the oath. It's not rocket science that freedom of religion applies to all religions and removing this tendency to add religion to government will prevent future leaders with different religions from doing the same.

There's a good chance that the oath was given officially a few minutes before the public event and that it was done to the letter of the constitution at that time. But doesn't the rest of the nation diserve to hear the ceremony performed correctly too?

Update: There was a do-over at 19:35 EST, but only a few reporters were present. Audio is available from CBS on Politico.com. The "so help me god" part was still there and I find it interesting that Justice Roberts states it as a question both times.

--photo from emilykreed on flickr.

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