LA Times: Teacher fired for refusing to sign loyalty oath

[qatarperegrine]

There I was, all excited about being in the Qatar Tribune, when my dad had to go one-up me by getting in today's LA Times.

In California, people who go to work for the state (including for state universities) still have to sign a McCarthyist loyalty oath, pledging their "true faith and allegiance" to the state and promising to defend it against all enemies. Today's L.A. Times article is on people -- mostly Quakers and other pacifists -- who have lost their jobs due to their refusal to sign. For example...

In 1995, Methodist minister Bud Tillinghast was teaching a course on comparative religion at Humboldt State University, when he was pulled out of class by campus police and fired because he had not signed the oath.

Tillinghast said he believed that swearing an oath to the state helped establish the government as a religion.

"I was teaching world religions and I ran up against a state religion," the retired minister recalled. "My concern was that this was breaking down the separation of church and state and making the state a religion you swear allegiance to."

He filed suit against Cal State for reinstatement arguing that the oath violated the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But after a court found that law unconstitutional, his suit was thrown out.

In all, Tillinghast said, he went up against the loyalty oath three times. Before being fired by Humboldt, he taught a religion class at a community college for nearly a decade. For that job, the school allowed him to sign an alternate oath.

Last year, he was named to the Humbolt County Human Rights Commission. A potential problem was averted when officials decided he didn't need to sign the oath.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/syd___/]

It's a really weird oath too, all CASA volunteers have to sign it to be sworn in as officers of the court. Plus all AmeriCorps members, but that makes slightly more sense as they are Federal Employees.
Your dad rocks!

[qatar-cat.livejournal.com]

Never knew they had to take an oath!

[qatar.livejournal.com]

It's left over from McCarthyism -- when people were asked if they were Communists. Here's what University of California employees had to sign in the 1950s:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office according to the best of my ability."

AND

"Having taken the constitutional oath of the office required by the State of California, I hereby formally acknowledge my acceptance of the position and salary named, and also state that I am not a member of the Communist Party or any other organization which advocates the overthrow of the Government by force or violence, and that I have no commitments in conflict with my responsibilities with respect to impartial scholarship and free pursuit of truth. I understand that the foregoing statement is a condition of my employment and a consideration of payment of my salary."

Here's the Calif Loyalty Oath

[don-k-hotay.livejournal.com]

Here is the Loyalty Oath from Article 20 Section 3 of the California Constitution:

SEC. 3. Members of the Legislature, and all public officers and
employees, executive, legislative, and judicial, except such inferior
officers and employees as may be by law exempted, shall, before they
enter upon the duties of their respective offices, take and
subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

THIS FOLLOWING PART IS STILL APPLICABLE

"I, ______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support
and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Consti-
tution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign
and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the
State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will
well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about
to enter.

THIS NEXT PART HAS BEEN RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL but is still found in the Constitution.

"And I do further swear (or affirm) that I do not advocate,
nor am I a member of any party or organization, political or other-
wise, that now advocates the overthrow of the Government of the
United States or of the State of California by force or violence
or other unlawful means; that within the five years immediately
preceding the taking of this oath (or affirmation) I have not
been a member of any party or organization, political or other-
wise, that advocated the overthrow of the Government of the
United States or of the State of California by force or violence
or other unlawful means except as follows:

(If no affiliations, write in the words "No Exceptions")
and that during such time as I hold the office of ______________ ______________________________ I will not advocate nor become
(name of office)
a member of any party or organization, political or otherwise,
that advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United
States or of the State of California by force or violence or
other unlawful means."

And no other oath, declaration, or test, shall be required as a
qualification for any public office or employment.

"Public officer and employee" includes every officer and employee
of the State, including the University of California, every county,
city, city and county, district, and authority, including any
department, division, bureau, board, commission, agency, or
instrumentality of any of the foregoing.