Does the president need to take the oath of office?
“Technically, Obama was already president anyway — the Constitution says the term of the incoming president begins at noon on Jan. 20” makes sense to me…
The Volokh Conspiracy has a decent roundup on one extreme theory (that Condi Rice was the first black woman president for a few minutes today), and one more reasonable one (the oath is necessary for carrying out executive duties only, not BECOMING President).
Teddy Roosevelt didn’t swear on a bible, or a prayer book or anything for that matter, he just took the oath. Also, it is not required at all that a bible be used for government oaths, you may recall that Keith Ellison was sworn into congress in 2006, and presumably 2008 using Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Koran, and I would assume that Jewish members of congress were similarly appointed. Now the only people who would object to the oath on religious grounds would be Quakers, as we are not allowed to take oaths at all (it implies that there are two standards of the truth and that when we are not sworn we are not trustworty. There have been two quaker presidents (Nixon and I believe Coolidge or Harding), neither of whom objected to the swearing in, but only one of whom was a practicing Quaker at the time of his inauguration (I will let you guess who, but the hint is that Nixon was read out of his meeting during the Vietnam conflict).
Johnson need not have been sworn in on Air Force One — upon the death of President Kennedy, Johnson assumed the office. AIUI, LBJ felt it was important to show the continuity of government. Remember that at that moment, there was no idea if other assassinations would be attempted. He also may not have realized he did not need to be sworn in, in view of the extraordinary stress of the moment.
