Today in Supreme Court History: August 3, 1994

8/3/1994: Justice Stephen Breyer takes oath.

Justice Stephen Breyer

Comments

[Martinned]

Oaths are, of course, an interesting topic. They are used in all (Western) countries that I am familiar with. Here in the Netherlands I had to take one when I joined the civil service. (In the UK when I became a civil servant there was no oath.) But, given how much the role of oaths in society has changed, you can also imagine getting rid of them wholesale. Whatever effect they have is a matter of subtle psychology, which will work very differently from one person to the next.

[Frank Drackman]

I think my first one was in the Boy Scouts, then not until joining the Navy (remember the "MASH" episode where Radar was made an Officer, hated it, then it turned out they gave him the wrong Oath of Office (the Presidential, not the one all other Government Officials take)
We symbolically took the "Oath of Hippo-Crates" at Med Screw-el Graduation (I had my fingers crossed) "Not do any Surgery"??? I was going to a Surgery Internship! (where I actually did no Surgery on my own) You're not supposed to do Abortions either, I did keep that one.

Frank

[Eugene Volokh]

Just to be clear, American law generally allows any oath to be replaced with an affirmation, which is to say a solemn promise that does not invoke God. The Constitution, for instance, allows an affirmation as an alternative wherever it requires an oath. It's hard to see why we'd want to get rid of a requirement that an incoming officeholder solemnly promise to do his duty, whatever one might think of the default option being that the officeholder also invoke God in the process.