Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/405/676/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:45:20+00:00

Document:
Appellee challenged the constitutionality of the oath statute. A three-judge District Court concluded that the attack on the "uphold and defend" clause was foreclosed by Knight v. Board of Regents, 390 U. S. 36, but found the "oppose the overthrow" clause "fatally vague and unspecific," and thus violative of the First Amendment. In response to a remand from this Court, the District Court concluded that the case was not moot, and reinstated its earlier judgment.
Held: The Massachusetts oath is constitutionally permissible. Pp. 405 U. S. 679-687.
(a) The oath provisions of the United States Constitution, Art. II, § 1, cl. 8, and Art. VI, cl. 3, are not inconsistent with the First Amendment. Pp. 405 U. S. 681-682.
(b) The District Court properly held that the "uphold and defend" clause, a paraphrase of the constitutional oath, is permissible. P. 405 U. S. 683.
(c) The "oppose the overthrow" clause was not designed to require specific action to be taken in some hypothetical or actual situation, but was to assure that those in positions of public trust were willing to commit themselves to live by the constitutional processes of our government. Pp. 405 U. S. 683-685.
(d) The oath is not void for vagueness. Perjury, the sole punishment, requires a knowing and willful falsehood, which removes the danger of punishment without fair notice, and there is no problem of punishment inflicted by mere prosecution, as there has been no prosecution under the statute since its enactment, nor has any been planned. Pp. 405 U. S. 685-686.
(e) There is no constitutionally protected right to overthrow a government by force, violence, or illegal or unconstitutional means, and therefore there is no requirement that one who refuse to take Massachuetts' oath be granted a hearing for the determination of some other fact before being dicharged. Pp. 686-687.
BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which STEWART, WHITE, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joned. STEWART and WHITE, JJ., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 405 U. S. 687. DOUGLAS, J., fiLed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 405 U. S. 687. MARSHALL, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BRENNAN, J., joined, post, p. 405 U. S. 691. POWELL and REHNQUIST, JJ., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
In this appeal, we review the decision of the three-judge District Court holding a Massachusetts loyalty oath unconstitutional.
of America or of this Commonwealth by force, violence or by any illegal or unconstitutional method. [Footnote 1]"
Mrs. Richardson informed the hospital's personnel department that she could not take the oath as ordered because of her belief that it was in violation of the United States Constitution. Approximately 10 days later, appellant Cole personally informed Mrs. Richardson that, under state law, she could not continue as an employee of the Boston State Hospital unless she subscribed to the oath. Again she refused. On November 25, 1968, Mrs. Richardson's employment was terminated, and she was paid through that date.
In March, 1969, Mrs. Richardson filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint alleged the unconstitutionality of the statute, sought damages and an injunction against its continued enforcement, and prayed for the convocation of a three-judge court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281 and 2284.
A three-judge District Court held the oath statute unconstitutional and enjoined the appellants from applying the statute to prohibit Mrs. Richardson from working for Boston State Hospital. [Footnote 2] The District Court found the attack on the "uphold and defend" clause, the first part of the oath, foreclosed by Knight v. Board of Regents, 269 F.Supp. 339 (SDNY 1967), aff'd, 390 U. S. 36 (1968). But it found that the "oppose the overthrow" clause was "fatally vague and unspecific," and therefore a violation of First Amendment rights. The court granted the requested injunction, but denied the claim for damages.
Appeals were then brought to this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1253. We remanded for consideration of whether the case was moot in light of a suggestion that Mrs. Richardson's job had been filled in the interim. 397 U. S. 238 (1970). On remand, the District Court concluded that Mrs. Richardson's position had not been filled, and that the hospital stood ready to hire her for the continuing research project except for the problem of the oath. In an unreported opinion dated July 1, 1970, it concluded that the case was not moot, and reinstated its earlier judgment. Appellants again appealed, and we noted probable jurisdiction. 403 U.S. 917 (1971).
of this case, we set forth our reasoning at greater length than previously.
must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application, [because such an oath] violates the first essential of due process of law.'"
Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U.S. at 368 U. S. 287. Concern for vagueness in the oath cases has been especially great because uncertainty as to an oath's meaning may deter individuals from engaging in constitutionally protected activity conceivably within the scope of the oath.
An underlying, seldom articulated concern running throughout these cases is that the oaths under consideration often required individuals to reach back into their past to recall minor, sometimes innocent, activities. They put the government into "the censorial business of investigating, scrutinizing, interpreting, and then penalizing or approving the political viewpoints" and past activities of individuals. Law Students Research Council v. Wadmond, 401 U.S. at 401 U. S. 192 (MARSHALL, J., dissenting).
Several eases recently decided by the Court stand out among our oath eases because they have upheld the constitutionality of oaths, addressed to the future, promising constitutional support in broad terms. These cases have begun with a recognition that the Constitution itself prescribes comparable oaths in two articles. Article II, § 1, cl. 8, provides that the President shall swear that he will "faithfully execute the Office . . . and will to the best of [his] Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Article VI, cl. 3, provides that all state and federal officers shall be bound by an oath "to support this Constitution." The oath taken by attorneys as a condition of admission to the Bar of this Court identically provides in part "that I will support the Constitution of the United States"; it also requires the attorney to state that he will "conduct [himself] uprightly, and according to law."
"The oath of constitutional support requires an individual assuming public responsibilities to affirm . . . that he will endeavor to perform his public duties lawfully."
401 U.S. at 401 U. S. 192.
The Court has further made clear that an oath need not parrot the exact language of the constitutional oaths to be constitutionally proper. Thus, in Ohlson v. Phillips, 397 U. S. 317 (1970), we sustained the constitutionality of a state requirement that teachers swear to "uphold" the Constitution. The District Court had concluded that the oath was simply a "recognition that ours is a government of laws, and not of men,'" and that the oath involved an affirmation of "organic law" and rejection of "the use of force to overthrow the government."
Ohlson v. Phillips, 304 F.Supp. 1152 (Colo. 1969).
The District Court in the instant case properly recognized that the first clause of the Massachusetts oath, in which the individual swears to "uphold and defend" the Constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth, is indistinguishable from the oaths this Court has recently approved. Yet the District Court applied a highly literalistic approach to the second clause to strike it down. We view the second clause of the oath as essentially the same as the first.
"oppose the overthrow of the government of the United States of America or of this Commonwealth by force, violence or by any illegal or unconstitutional method."
The District Court sought to give a dictionary meaning to this language and found "oppose" to raise the specter of vague, undefinable responsibilities actively to combat a potential overthrow of the government. That reading of the oath understandably troubled the court because of what it saw as vagueness in terms of what threats would constitute sufficient danger of overthrow to require the oath giver to actively oppose overthrow, and exactly what actions he would have to take in that respect. Cf. Ohlson v. Phillips, 304 F.Supp. at 1154 and n. 4.
little more than verbal calisthenics. Cf. S. Chase, The Tyranny of Words (1959); W. Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity (1955)."
Cole v. Richardson, 397 U. S. 238, 397 U. S. 240 (1970). We have rejected such rigidly literal notions and recognized that the purpose leading legislatures to enact such oaths, just as the purpose leading the Framers of our Constitution to include the two explicit constitutional oaths, was not to create specific responsibilities, but to assure that those in positions of public trust were willing to commit themselves to live by the constitutional processes of our system, as MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL suggested in Wadmond, 401 U.S. at 401 U. S. 192. Here, the second clause does not require specific action in some hypothetical or actual situation. Plainly, "force, violence or . . . any illegal or unconstitutional method" modifies "overthrow," and does not commit the oath-taker to meet force with force. Just as the connotatively active word "support" has been interpreted to mean simply a commitment to abide by our constitutional system, the second clause of this oath is merely oriented to the negative implication of this notion; it is a commitment not to use illegal and constitutionally unprotected force to change the constitutional system. The second clause does not expand the obligation of the first; it simply makes clear the application of the first clause to a particular issue. Such repeatition, whether for emphasis or cadence, seems to be the wont of authors of oaths. That the second clause may be redundant is no ground to strike it down; we are not charged with correcting grammar, but with enforcing a constitution.
raise serious questions whether the oath was so vague as to amount to a denial of due process. Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U. S. 385 (1926); Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U.S. at 368 U. S. 287.
Massachusetts oath in terms of an endless "parade of horribles" would do well to bear in mind that many of the hazards of human existence that can be imagined are circumscribed by the classic observation of Mr. Justice Holmes, when confronted with the prophecy of dire consequences of certain judicial action, that it would not occur "while this Court sits." Panhandle Oil Co. v. Knox, 277 U. S. 218, 277 U. S. 223 (dissenting).
Appellee mounts an additional attack on the Massachusetts oath program in that it does not provide for a hearing prior to the determination not to hire the individual based on the refusal to subscribe to the oath. All of the cases in this Court that require a hearing before discharge for failure to take an oath involved impermissible oaths. In Slochower v. Board of Education, 350 U. S. 551 (1956) (not an oath case), the State sought to dismiss a professor for claiming the Fifth Amendment privilege in a United States Senate committee hearing; the Court held the State's action invalid because the exercise of the privilege was a constitutional right from which the State could not draw any rational inference of disloyalty. Appellee relies on Nostrand v. Little, 362 U. S. 474 (1960), and Connell v. Higginbotham, 403 U. S. 207 (1971), but, in those cases, the Court held only that the mere refusal to take the particular oath was not a constitutionally permissible basis for termination. In the circumstances of those cases, only by holding a hearing, showing evidence of disloyalty, and allowing the employee an opportunity to respond might the State develop a permissible basis for concluding that the employee was to be discharged.
one who refuses to take the Massachusetts oath be granted a hearing for the determination of some other fact before being discharged.
"Every person entering the employ of the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, shall take and subscribe to, under the pains and penalty of perjury, the following oath or affirmation: --"
" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and that I will oppose the overthrow of the government of the United States of America or of this Commonwealth by force, violence or by any illegal or unconstitutional method."
"Such oath or affirmation shall be filed by the subscriber, if he shall be employed by the state, with the secretary of the commonwealth, if an employee of a county, with the county commissioners, and if an employee of a city or town, with the city clerk or the town clerk, as the case may be."
"The oath or affirmation prescribed by this section shall not be required of any person who is employed by the commonwealth or a political subdivision thereof as a physician or nurse in a hospital or other health care institution and is a citizen of a foreign country."
"Violation of section fourteen shall be punished by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both."
Richardson v. Cole, 300 F.Supp. 1321 (Mass. 1969).
The District Court interpreted Mass.Gen.Laws, c. 264, § 15, which punishes a "[v]iolation of section fourteen," see n 1, supra, as "presumably" punishing "a failure to live up' to the oath." We see no basis for this interpretation. The clear purpose of § 15 is to punish the failure to comply with the directive aspects of § 14, which requires that every person entering the employ of the Commonwealth subscribe to the oath and file it with a certain state employee. Section 14, which includes the oath, says that it is taken upon the penalty of perjury, but mentions nothing about a continuing criminal responsibility to "live up" to it.
The time may come when the value of oaths in routine public employment will be thought not "worth the candle" for all the division of opinion they engender. However, while oaths are required by legislative acts, it is not our function to evaluate their wisdom or utility, but only to decide whether they offend the Constitution.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART and MR. JUSTICE WHITE, concurring.
All agree that the first part of this oath, under which a person swears to "uphold and defend" the Federal and State Constitutions, is wholly valid under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. But if "uphold" and "defend" are not words that suffer from vagueness and overbreadth, then surely neither is the word "oppose" in the second part of the oath.
When the case was here before, Mr. Justice Harlan expressed the view that "[t]his oath does not impinge on conscience or belief, except to the extent that oath taking as such may offend particular individuals." Cole v. Richardson, 397 U. S. 238, 397 U. S. 241 (concurring in result). We agree. And as to such individuals, the Massachusetts law clearly permits an affirmation, rather than an oath. Mass.Gen.Laws, c. 264, § 14.
On this basis we join the opinion and judgment of the Court.
"I will oppose the overthrow of the government of the United States of America or of this Commonwealth by force, violence or by any illegal or unconstitutional method"
is plainly unconstitutional by our decisions. See Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624, 319 U. S. 634.
"forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."
Id. at 395 U. S. 447. The same idea was put in somewhat different words in Noto v. United States, 367 U. S. 290, 367 U. S. 297-298, that "abstract teaching" of overthrow is protected activity as contrasted to "preparing a group for violent action and steeling it to such action." And see Yates v. United States, 354 U. S. 298, 354 U. S. 318.
The present oath makes such advocacy a possible offense under a restrictive reading of the First Amendment.
manifestation[s] of a national network of laws aimed at coercing and controlling the minds of men. Test oaths are notorious tools of tyranny. When used to shackle the mind they are, or at least they should be, unspeakably odious to a free people.
Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U. S. 183, 344 U. S. 193 (Black, J., concurring). And see Speiser v. Randall, 357 U. S. 513, 357 U. S. 532 (DOUGLAS, J., concurring). We said in Brandenburg that the protection of the First Amendment, as applied to the States through the Fourteenth, does not depend on the "quality of advocacy," since that "turns on the depth of the conviction." 395 U.S. at 395 U. S. 457 (DOUGLAS, J., concurring). The line between the permissible control by a State and the impermissible control is "the line between ideas and overt acts." Id. at 395 U. S. 456.
and doctrines however obnoxious and antagonistic such views may be to the rest of us."
"The substance of the oath [was] not confined merely to a declaration of support of the Federal and State Constitutions. It equally concern[ed] an undertaking by the plaintiff that 'I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of assistant professor of mathematics according to the best of my ability.'"
Id. at 128-129, 224 N.E.2d at 416. Finding the oath to be "altogether too vague a standard to enforce judicially," and being without evidence "whether the Legislature would have enacted [it] without the [invalid] provision," the court was unable to hold that the provisions were severable, and thus unanimously struck down the entire oath. Id. at 129, 224 N.E.2d at 416.
I would follow the lead of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts -- the court which has the final word on how the statutes of that State are to be construed -- and hold that the entire oath must fall.
I conclude that whether the First Amendment is read restrictively or literally as Jefferson would have read it, the oath which the District Court struck down, 300 F.Supp. 1321, is plainly unconstitutional. I would affirm its judgment.
The majority makes the suggestion that "we might be faced with a different question" if there were "a record of actual prosecutions or harassment through threatened prosecutions." Ante at 405 U. S. 685. Here, appellee has been discharged from employment and denied her source of livelihood because of her refusal to subscribe to an unconstitutional oath. If the oath suffers from constitutional infirmities, then it matters not whether the penalties imposed for refusing to subscribe to it were criminal or the denial of employment.
The Court is correct when it says "there is no constitutionally protected right to overthrow a government by force, violence, or illegal or unconstitutional means," ante at 405 U. S. 686, but that has no bearing on the present case. What is involved here is appellee's right to espouse and advocate ideas which may be unpopular to some. How we can honor that right to advocate while exacting the promise to "oppose," the Court leaves unanswered.
The majority first chides the District Court for taking "a literal approach" and "giv[ing] [the word oppose'] a dictionary meaning." The majority then reads "oppose" to be a mere "negative implication of th[e] notion" of "a commitment to abide by our constitutional system" not requiring "specific, positive action." Ante at 405 U. S. 683, 405 U. S. 684. Having thus emasculated the word, the majority then labels it as "redundant," and a "repetition," ibid., and concludes that the oath, in its entirety, is simply "to abide by the constitutional system in the future." Ante at 405 U. S. 686.
If the oath is void for vagueness or overbreadth, it is because the common meaning of its words is so imprecise or so far-reaching as to place a "chilling effect" upon constitutionally protected expression. This vice -- readily apparent in the present oath -- is emphasized, rather than avoided, by the majority's opinion. The tortured route which the majority takes to give this oath a supposedly constitutional interpretation merely emphasizes the unconstitutional effect those words would have were they to be given their natural meaning.
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of (insert name of position) according to the best of my ability."
"I will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and . . . I will oppose the overthrow of the government of the United States of America or of this Commonwealth by force, violence or by any illegal or unconstitutional method."
of the oath in its entirety. In my opinion, the second half of the oath is not only vague, but also overbroad. Accordingly, I dissent.
The first half of the oath, requiring an employee to indicate a willingness to "uphold and defend" the state and federal Constitutions, is clearly constitutional. It is nothing more than the traditional oath of support that we have unanimously upheld as a condition of public employment.
to be impermissibly vague and overbroad.
391 U. S. 563 (1968); Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U. S. 493 (1967). This reading would also make the second half of the oath inconsistent with the first half. It is far from clear to me which reading the Massachusetts Legislature intended. A reasonable man could certainly read the oath either way, and Massachusetts has not offered to make a binding clarification of its purport.
"The ordinary citizen who has taken no oath has an obligation to act in extremis; a person who has taken the first part of the present oath would have a somewhat larger obligation, and one who has taken the second part has one still larger."
I agree with the conclusion of the District Court that "[t]he very fact that such varied standards . . . can be suggested is enough to condemn the language as hopelessly vague." Id. at 1323.
Vagueness is also inherent in the use of the word "overthrow." When does an affiant's undefined responsibility under the oath require action: when an overthrow is threatened? When an overthrow is likely to be threatened? When a threatened overthrow has some chance of success? Cf. Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U. S. 444 (1969); Yates v. United States, 354 U. S. 298 (1957); Dennis v. United States, 341 U. S. 494 (1951). The oath answers none of these questions, and, for that reason, if no other, cannot stand.
The importance of clarity and precision in an oath of this kind should not be underestimated. Chapter 264, § 14, of the Massachusetts General Laws provides that the oath is taken subject to the pains and penalties of perjury, and § 15 of that chapter specifies that the pains and penalties may amount to one year in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
In concluding that this oath is vague, I rely on Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U. S. 360 (1964). One part of the oath considered in Baggett, like the Massachusetts oath, required that the affiant assert a wilingness to conform future conduct to the criteria set forth in an oath taken under penalty of perjury. The Court struck down the oath in Baggett, and MR. JUSTICE WHITE's opinion for the Court explained in great detail the inordinate difficulties employees would have in attempting to conform their actions to the oath's criteria. Id. at 377 U. S. 371. While the oath involved herein differs somewhat from that involved in Baggett, the considerations in both cases are the same, and the results should also be the same.
I would also strike down the second half of this oath as an overbroad infringement of protected expression and conduct.
The Court's prior decisions represent a judgment that simple affirmative oaths of support are less suspect and less evil than negative oaths requiring a disaffirmance of political ties, group affiliations, or beliefs. Compare Connell v. Higginbotham, 403 U. S. 207 (1971); Knight v. Board of Regents, 269 F.Supp. 339 (SDNY 1967), aff'd, 390 U. S. 36 (1968); Hosack v. Smiley, 276 F.Supp. 876 (Colo.1967), aff'd, 390 U. S. 744 (1968); Ohlson v. Phillips, 304 F.Supp. 1152 (Colo.1969), aff'd, 397 U. S. 317 (1970), with Whitehill v. Elkins, 389 U. S. 54 (1967); Baggett v. Bullitt, supra; Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U. S. 278 (1961); Speiser v. Randall, 357 U. S. 513 (1958); Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U. S. 183 (1952); Garner v. Board of Public Works, 341 U. S. 716 (1951).
13 Am.J.Legal Hist. 97, 104 (1969); Akin, Loyalty Oaths in Retrospect: Freedom and Reality, 1968 Wis.L.Rev. 498, 502; Note, Loyalty Oaths, 77 Yale L.J. 739, 763 (1968). We have tolerated support oaths as applied to all government employees only because we view these affirmations as an expression of "minimal loyalty to the Government." American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U. S. 382, 339 U. S. 415 (1950). Such oaths are merely indications by the employee "in entirely familiar and traditional language, that he will endeavor to perform his public duties lawfully." Law Students Research Council v. Wadmond, 401 U. S. 154, 401 U. S. 192 (MARSHALL, J., dissenting).
It is precisely because these oaths are minimal, requiring only that nominal expression of allegiance "which, by the common law, every citizen was understood to owe his sovereign," Knight v. Board of Regents, 269 F.Supp. at 341, that they have been sustained. That they are minimal intrusions into the freedom of government officials and employees to think, speak, and act makes them constitutional; it does not mean that greater intrusions will be tolerated. On the contrary, each time this Court has been faced with an attempt by government to make the traditional support oath more comprehensive or demanding, it has struck the oath down. See, e.g., Connell v. Higginbotham, supra; Baggett v. Bullitt, supra; cf. Bond v. Floyd, 385 U. S. 116 (1966).
Constitution severely circumscribes the power of government to force its citizens to perform symbolic gestures of loyalty. Cf. Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624 (1943). Since the overbreadth of the oath tends to infringe areas of speech and conduct that may be protected by the Constitution, I believe that it cannot stand. See Whitehill v. Elkins, supra; Bagett v. Bullitt, supra; Wieman v. Upderaff, supra; Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479 (1960).
Because only the second half of the oath is invalid, I would normally favor severing the statute and striking only the second part. See Connell v. Higginbotham, supra. However, when confronted with an oath strikingly similar to that before us, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that the two portions of the oath were not severable. Pedlosky v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 352 Mass. 127, 224 N.E.2d 414 (1967). This Court must bow to state courts in their construction of state legislation. Therefore, we must bow to the decision of the state court and strike the oath in its entirety.
those with a conscientious and scrupulous regard for such undertakings."
Bagett v. Bullitt, supra, at 377 U. S. 373-374.
"Loyalty oaths, as well as other contemporary 'security measures,' tend to stifle all forms of unorthodox or unpopular thinking or expression -- the kind of thought and expression which has played such a vital and beneficial role in the history of this Nation. The result is a stultifying conformity which, in the end, may well turn out to be more destructive to our free society than foreign agents could ever hope to be. . . . I am certain that loyalty to the United States can never be secured by the endless proliferation of 'loyalty' oaths; loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government."
Accordingly, I would affirm the decision of the District Court.
Appellee was not requested to take the oath before she began her employment. The reasons for the failure of the hospital officials to require the oath as a prerequisite to employment are not readily apparent from the record. In any event, the oath was required of all state employees at all relevant times.
Appellee also sought damages for back wages allegedly owed. It is apparent that all back wages have now been paid. Thus, this claim is no longer in controversy. The District Court rejected appellee's belated attempt to make a claim for loss of wages due to termination, and this decision was well within its discretion under Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
"[I]n the event that a clear and present danger arose of the actual overthrow of the government, . . . the public employee [would] be required to use reasonable means at his disposal to attempt to thwart that effort. What he might do in such circumstances could range from the use of physical force to speaking out against the downfall of the government. The kind of response required would be commensurate with the circumstances and with the employee's ability, his training, and the means available to him at the time."
(Emphasis added.) Quoted at 300 F.Supp. at 1322. The final sentence of this quotation evidences the confusion that the State confesses about the responsibilities assumed by employees in taking the oath.
In light of the arguments that the appellants make, I find it impossible to agree with the Court that the second half of the oath adds nothing to the first. The appellants contend, contrary to the assertions of the Court, that a citizen who takes the first part of the oath has more of a duty to his government than one who takes no oath, and that one who takes the second part of the oath has a still greater duty. While the appellants are unsure as to where and how far that duty extends, they never have suggested that it simply does not exist. The argument is even made that the duty extends to the use of physical force.
Were we faced with merely a traditional oath of support, I would join the Court. I share the Court's dismay at having to hold state legislation unconstitutional, but I cannot ignore the thrust that a State would give its statutes. Cf. Pedlosky v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 352 Mass. 127, 224 N.E.2d 414 (1967).

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