Scotusblog has this commentary about the possibility that someone might want to sue over the fact that the words for the swearing-in oath for President Obama weren’t precisely in the order specified in the Constitution. The piece concludes that no one would have standing. Other stories in newspapers quote some legal experts as recommending that the oath be readministered. See this San Francisco Chronicle article. The redo could be done in private, and some experts even speculated that it has already been redone in private. Thanks to How Appealing for the links. UPDATE: on January 21, President Obama took the oath again, in a private ceremony. See this article.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Well, for pity’s sake, the REST of the Constitution is ignored, so why this worry about the oath, which is routinely ignored anyway?
Any impeachment effort going on regarding the MORON Chief Justice — who obviously did NOT rehearse the oath about 1,000 times (or even use a 3 x 5 card having the oath).
How about changing the oath for ALL public officials so that even MORONS can perhaps understand it —
I [name] swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
Toot some horns, beat some drums.
How about making the oath’s intentional violation a felony for each instance?
Call this what it was–a SNAFU. The only really disconcerting thing here is that a Chief Justice and an alleged constitutional lawyer both couldn’t recite it from memory, or at least exercise the common sense to write it down on an index card beforehand! That utter stupidity speaks volumes about our federal government.
There was no “utter stupidity” involved here, just momentary human nervousness or distraction, call it what you will, on the part of CJ Roberts, of whom I am certainly no friend, but for God’s sake what an idiotic issue on which to spend even a second’s time and energy. Apparently Obama’s problem was that he was caught off guard by the CJ’s misstep, as anyone who knows the oath would have been. So what? Redo the thing in private as two previous presidents have done in similar situations, and that’s the end of it. Case closed.
Has Mr. Berg latched onto this vital, compelling, earth shattering issue now that he’s run out of courts to distract with his other obsession?
How many alleged *official* acts by Obama from the time of the illegal oath to the legal oath ???
On MSNBC this morning they mentioned that only an audio tape, not a video, was released of the retaking of the oath. They suggested that this was a mistake in that someone will claim the voices were impersonators and not actually Roberts and Obama. 🙂
How do we know Roberts or Obama exist? Or MSNBC? Or you? Or me?
Do I exist???? Wait! Let me check my birth certificate!