Saying the right words

 

I noticed something funny in watching President Biden take the oath of office, which was been shown repeatedly over the past week. Usually, it seems to me that the individuals being sworn in as President and Vice President precisely repeat the words said by the Chief Justice. But at the very end of the presidential oath, Chief Justice Roberts said (emphasis mine) “so help you God,” following which President Biden (correctly) said “so help me God.” I had not noticed this when Vice President Harris was sworn in, and did not recall having noticed it before.

Here is the Presidential oath of office as defined in the Constitution:

Around noon, the president-elect recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:

"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."

 

I wondered when that phrase “so help me God” was added to the oath. On Wikipedia, I read

 

The First Congress explicitly prescribed the phrase "So help me God" in oaths under the Judiciary Act of 1789 for all U.S. judges and officers other than the president. It was prescribed even earlier under the various first state constitutions as well as by the Second Continental Congress in 1776. Although the phrase is mandatory in these oaths, the said Act also allows for the option that the phrase be omitted by the officer, in which case it would be called an affirmation instead of an oath: "Which words, so help me God, shall be omitted in all cases where an affirmation is admitted instead of an oath." In contrast, the oath of the president is the only oath specified in the Constitution. It does not include the closing phrase "So help me God", and it also allows for the optional form of an affirmation which is not considered an oath. In practice, however, most presidents, at least during the last century, have opted to take the oath (rather than an affirmation), to use a Bible to do so, and also to close the oath with the customary phrase.

 

I spent a couple of hours going through videos of presidential inaugurations over the past thirty some years, and here is what I found:

 

Year	President	Oath Administered by	Final Words said by Chief Justice
1977	Carter	Burger	So help me God
1981	Reagan 1	Burger	So help me God
1985	Reagan 2	Burger	So help me God
1989	GHW Bush	Rehnquist	So help me God
1993	Clinton 1	Rehnquist	So help me God
1997	Clinton 2	Rehnquist	So help me God
2001	GW Bush 1	Rehnquist	So help me God
2005	GW Bush 2	Rehnquist	So help me God
2009	Obama 1	Roberts	So help YOU God (both at original and retake)
2013	Obama 2	Roberts	So help YOU God
2017	Trump	Roberts	So help me God
2021	Biden	Roberts	So help YOU God

 

I even went back and watched a video of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, at which then Chief Justice Earl Warren administered the oath of office, and lo and behold Warren said “so help YOU God,” to which President Kennedy responded “so help me God.”

I am not sure why Chief Justice Roberts used different wording when swearing in President Trump than he had used for President Obama and subsequently used for President Biden.

I also noticed something I had not noticed previously, namely, that the oath sworn by the Vice President is rather different than the one asked of the President, and in fact contains that key phrase at the end.

The vice-president-elect is sworn in first, and repeats the same oath of office, in use since 1884, as senators, representatives, and other federal employees: 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

I was always a math and science student, and only studied as much history and political science as I needed to maintain a decent grade point average. So, for me this has been an interesting civics lesson, but I could not resist at least creating one table to track my findings.

Stay well.

Love,                                           

Rebecca