User:Tamwin/Cummings v. Missouri

Cummings v. Missouri
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued Mar 14 - 19, 1866 Decided Jan 14, 1867
Full case name	Cummings v. Missouri
Citations	71 U.S. 277 (more)
Holding
A requirement that state officers and priests swear that they have not acted against the union is unconstitutional, because it is a bill of attainder, punishing the accused by legislative decree rather than trial, and because it is an ex post facto law, which punishes people for deeds that may not have been crimes at the time they were done.
Court membership
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase Associate Justices James M. Wayne · Samuel Nelson Robert C. Grier · Nathan Clifford Noah H. Swayne · Samuel F. Miller David Davis · Stephen J. Field
Case opinions
Majority	Field, joined by Nelson, Grier, Clifford, and Wayne
Dissent	Miller, joined by Chase, Swayne, and Davis

Cummings v. Missouri, 71 U.S. 277 (1867), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that attempts to require officials to swear that they had not supported the Confederates in the Civil War were unconstitutional as an ex post facto law and bill of attainder.

Background

An amendment to the Missouri Constitution, adopted in 1865, required all voters, state officials, priests, teachers, and corporate officers to swear an oath, known as the Oath of Loyalty. They were required to swear that they had not aided the Confederates in the Civil War, evaded the draft, or engaged in any of a host of other activities deemed disloyal.