Loyalty oath

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A loyalty oath is an oath of loyalty to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member.

In this context, a loyalty oath is not a pledge or oath of allegiance. It is an affirmation by which a person signs a legally binding document or warrant.

Usually, a loyalty oath to an organization or to a nation state is created during a time of social tension when people wish to guard against behavior like advocating fundamental change in the organization, advocating violent overthrow of the nation state, or spreading dissent within the organization. Such social tension is most manifest during times of war or when the organization or nation state is faced with a conflict with one or more other organizations or nation states (see Cold War).

In the United States

Civil War and Reconstruction

During the American Civil War, political prisoners and prisoners of war were often released upon taking an "oath of allegiance". Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction featured an oath to "faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union of the States thereunder" as a condition for a Presidential pardon. During Reconstruction, retroactive loyalty oaths were required, so that no one could hold federal office who hadn't been loyal in the past.

Truman era

Loyalty oaths were common during World War II. In support of Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration, 100,000 school children marched to Boston Commons and swore a loyalty oath administered by the mayor, "I promise as a good American citizen to do my part for the NRA. I will buy only where the Blue Eagle flies." Another use of loyalty oaths in the United States was during the 1950s and 1960s. The Red Scare during the 1950s and the Congressional hearings chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy helped to sustain a national mood of concern about communist agents and a fear such agents may injure the U.S. government through espionage or outright violence.

On March 21, 1947, concerned with Soviet subversive penetration and infiltration into the United States government by American citizens who held oaths of allegiance to a foreign power during war time, President Harry S Truman instituted a Loyalty Program, requiring loyalty oaths and background investigations on persons deemed suspect to holding party membership in organizations that advocated violent and anti-democratic programs.

Typically, a loyalty oath will have wording something along the following which is taken from the U.S Supreme Court decision of Garner v. Los Angeles Board, 341 U.S. 716.

"I further swear (or affirm) that I do not advise, advocate or teach, and have not within the period beginning five (5) years prior to the effective date of the ordinance requiring the making of this oath or affirmation, advised, advocated or taught, the overthrow by force, violence or other unlawful means, of the Government of the United States of America or of the State of California and that I am not now and have not, within said period, been or become a member of or affiliated with any group, society, association, organization or party which advises, advocates or teaches, or has, within said period, advised, advocated or taught, the overthrow by force, violence or other unlawful means of the Government of the United States of America, or of the State of California. I further swear (or affirm) that I will not, while I am in the service of the City of Los Angeles, advise, advocate or teach, or be or become a member of or affiliated with any group, association, society, organization or party which advises, advocates or teaches, or has within said period, advised, advocated or taught, the overthrow by force, violence or other unlawful means, of the Government of the United States of America or of the State of California . . . ."

The U.S Supreme Court has both upheld the use of loyalty oaths and overturned lower court decisions upholding loyalty oaths.

Recent Uses

Though not legally binding, the Republican National Committee (RNC) used both signed Loyalty Oaths and spoken Loyalty Pledges as a requirement to attend certain 2004 re-election campaign speeches, a possible first in U.S. election history.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, the campaign of George W. Bush routinely required all attendants at its rallies to take what some have called a "loyalty oath". Those who refused to take the oath were not allowed to attend the rally. The "loyalty oath" was actually a pledge of endorsement. These endorsements were used during some of the campaign rallies in 2004. The Bush campaign asserted that the oath was valid because the president was conducting a partisan campaign event. Opponents countered that the oath was intrusive to individual conscience, somewhat fascist in nature and denied general public access to the president.

California currently requires all state workers to sign a loyalty oath as a term of employment.

References

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Last updated on Saturday March 01, 2008 at 13:16:14 PST (GMT -0800)
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