Board of Supervisors of Elections, 341 U.S. Accepting the state court construction that the law required each candidate to “make oath that he is not a person who is engaged ‘in one way or another in the attempt to overthrow the government by force or violence,’ and that he is not knowingly a member of an organization engaged in such an attempt,” the Court unanimously sustained the provision in a one-paragraph per curiam opinion. Second, government may require its employees or prospective employees to subscribe to a loyalty oath disclaiming belief in or advocacy of, or membership in an organization that stands for or advocates unlawful or disloyal action.įollowing the Civil War, the state and federal governments adopted test oaths, which the Supreme Court generally voided as ex post facto laws and bills of attainder. First, government may establish a system investigating employees or prospective employees under standards relating to presumed loyalty. Such programs generally take one of two forms or may combine the two. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Īn area in which significant First Amendment issues are often raised is the establishment of loyalty-security standards for government employees.

Oath of loyalty to a political party