Topic: Court & Religious Oaths - Force the issue?

[amysrevenge]

I hope that one day, the President of the United States swears in on the constitution, not the Bible.

As an outsider, I actually think that's the same kind of creepy if in a different flavour.  Just promise to do the job.  Doesn't need to be "on" anything.

[jmars]

I hope that one day, the President of the United States swears in on the constitution, not the Bible.

As an outsider, I actually think that's the same kind of creepy if in a different flavour.  Just promise to do the job.  Doesn't need to be "on" anything.

The whole thing is just meaningless tradition. Doesn't spending months and millions of dollars campaigning the most criticized job in America enough to demonstrate the intent to do the job well, without needing to take a special oath?

Why do the British magistrates still wear those silly wigs?!

[Neon Genesis]

Why do we need to swear an oath anyway?  If you were really going to lie, you wouldn't tell everyone up front, would you?  It just seems kind of silly to ask you if you're going to plan on lying or not when you're serving court.

[Skeptress]

Remember in Fried Green Tomatoes they had the preacher swear on a regular book instead of the Bible so he'd lie?  No? I was the only one to watch that movie wasn't I?