User talk:NAProject

An act to regulate the time and manner of administering certain oaths, which specified the oath for Congress and for the executive branch, excluding the President, was the first law passed by the U.S. Congress after the ratification of the constitution. It has no "so help me God"

The Judiciary Act of 1789 established an additional oath taken by Supreme Court justices and district court judges only. That oath ended with "so help me God." However, the act then says "Which words, so help me God, shall be omitted in all cases where an affirmation is admitted instead of an oath."

In 1862 "so help me God", was first appended to the non-judicial and non-presidential civilian federal oath.

Today, both federal civilian and military personnel and new citizens who do not want to append 'so help me God' to their Oath of Office or Oath of Citizenship may take the oath without that phrase. The Supreme Court held in Cole v. Richardson, 405 U.S. 676 that federal and state governments cannot condition employment on taking oaths that infringe on the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held (EEOC # 01890285 dated April 2, 1990) that even though an Oath is required by statute, it must be modified as necessary to accommodate an individual’s religious rights. Also, White House Guidelines on Religious Exercise and Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace, August 19, 1997, state that "where an agency’s work rule imposes a substantial burden on a particular employee’s exercise of religion, the agency…should grant the employee an exemption from that rule, unless the agency has a compelling interest in denying the exemption and there is no less restrictive means of furthering the interest."

Anything that he (or anyone else) puts on that page that says or implies otherwise (in particular that "so help me god" was required in 1789 and is "required" today in government oaths) should be corrected or deleted. NAProject (talk) 20:48, 11 September 2008 (UTC)