1/20/09

Roberts Screwed Up The Oath

Yes, it was Chief Justice John Roberts who screwed up the Oath of Office, not the President of The United States, Barack Obama (that felt good to write!), according to Ann Althouse.
The Chief Justice in fact screwed up the oath. The Constitution requires:
"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."
Roberts left out the word "faithfully." (He also said "President to the United State.") Obama saw the mistake and stopped himself to gave Roberts a chance to fix it. Roberts redid the line, remembering to throw in "faithfully," but putting it in the wrong place — after President of the United States — and, this time, Obama went along with the wording. Close enough, I guess he figured. I wonder what Barack Obama was thinking. Maybe: Some textualist you turned out to be!
Sully , however, says:
The highlight so far: a quartet that looks like the America we love, a score as deep and as meditative as this moment demands. And an oath bungled by both Justice and President, as the moment simply overwhelmed their human capacity to grasp it. But we are all grasping it now. And, as it happens, it is beyond our grasping.
I think Obama and Roberts both kinda screwed up, but let's blame Roberts, okay?

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