Parties: Cole v. Richardson
Date: 1972-04-18
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Paragraph: 33 - 'The First Amendment . . . leaves the way wide open for people to favor, discuss, advocate, or incite causes and doctrines however obnoxious and antagonistic such views may be to the rest of us.'
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Paragraph: 53 - 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, 87 S.Ct. 339, 17 L.Ed.2d 235 (1966).
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Paragraph: 33 - N104* N105* 'The First Amendment . . . leaves the way wide open for people to favor, discuss, advocate, or incite causes and doctrines however obnoxious and antagonistic such views may be to the rest of us.' Yates v. United States, supra, 354 U.S., at 344, 77 S.Ct., at 1090. (Black, J., concurring and dissenting). This oath, however, requires that appellee 'oppose' that which she has an indisputable right to advocate. Yet the majority concludes that the promise of 'opposition'—exacted as a condition of public employment—is a mere redundancy which does not impair appellee's freedom of expression.
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Paragraph: 54 - N74* When faced with an 'imminent clear and present danger,' governments may be able to compel citizens to do things that would ordinarily be beyond their authority to mandate. But, such emergency governmental power is a far cry from compelling every state employee in advance of any such danger to promise in any and all circumstances to conform speech and conduct to opposing an 'overthrow' of the government. The Constitution severely circumscribes the power of government to force its citizens to perform symbolic gestures of loyalty. Cf. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (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.
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Paragraph: 9 - A review of the oath cases in this Court will put the instant oath into context. We have made clear that neither federal nor state government may condition employment on taking oaths that impinge on rights guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments respectively, as for example those relating to political beliefs. Law Students Civil Rights Research Council v. Wadmond, 401 U.S. 154, 91 S.Ct. 720, 27 L.Ed.2d 749 (1971); Baird v. State Bar of Arizona, 401 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 702, 27 L.Ed.2d 639 (1971); Connell v. Higginbotham, 403 U.S. 207, 209, 91 S.Ct. 1772, 1774, 29 L.Ed.2d 418 (1971) (Marshall, J., concurring in result). Nor may employment be conditioned on an oath that one has not engaged, or will not engage, in protected speech activities such as the following: criticizing institutions of government; discussing political doctrine that approves the overthrow of certain forms of government; and supporting candidates for political office.
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