Rare Publicity for a State’s Loyalty Oath for Candidates
November 27th, 2009National Public Radio has this short article about the Illinois election law that asks candidates for office to sign a loyalty oath. All such oaths were held unconstitutional by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in 1974, but they remain on the books in six states, including populous states like California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The California legislature repealed one of that state’s laws last year, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. It didn’t relate directly to elections, but rather to employment in public school systems.
November 27th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Per usual – SUE any MORON bureaucrats who attempt to enforce any unconstitutional laws — BANKRUPT them as an example for the party hack MORONS in the State legislatures.
November 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Richard you are incorrect. The U.S. Supreme Court did not “unanimously hold that California Constitution Section 3, Article XX” was unconstitutional in 1974 or at any other time.
It is interesting to know that on July 2, 2009, when Charles Deemer (a California Notary Public)
gave the long form oath as stated in Section 3,
Article XX of the California Constitution to MS.
C. Nightingale who is running for Governor of California in 2010, that she did not asseverate
the “no exceptions” statement on her long form
oath.
What does Nightingale have to hide of her past,
by not writing the “no exceptions” on her long form loyalty oath?
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
November 29th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I think Richard is talking, not about a case particularly and only addressing the California oath, but about a case in which the general principle of requiring such oaths of candidates was rejected. And his giving the date as 1974 leads me to suggest he means _Communist Party of Indiana v. Whitcomb_, 414 U.S. 441 (1974).
November 29th, 2009 at 9:52 am
#3 is correct.
The California loyalty oaths had already been struck down in 1967 by the California Supreme Court, but the legislature won’t repeal them; except when it tried to repeal one of them, as the post says, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the repeal. He is not a champion of civil liberties.
November 29th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Richard,
I will look at it again. Please provide me with the 1967 case. I remember my late friend William Shearer (AIP Parlimentarian)telling me in 2004
that the AIP required all members of the County Central
Committee to take the long form loyality oath.
The AIP did not get ballot quilified until 1968. The case you make reference to is from 1967. It is in the
current Constitution of California Section 3, Article XX.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American Independent Party