Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States.

Or is he?

Ponder this question from Marc Spear of Denver:

The oath of office is the only direct quote in the U.S. Constitution. After Chief Justice John Roberts' mangling of the oath, Barack Obama "faithfully" misquoted, and that leads me to ask: Do we have a constitutional problem? Obama has not taken the oath as written in the Constitution, since the word "faithfully" was ultimately in the wrong place.


"Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'"

This oath has, technically, not been taken.

Other readers had the same question. Rick Lohmeyer of Broomfield, Colo., asks, "Would it be necessary for President Obama to repeat the oath of office in private with the correct words?" Jennifer Loustau of West Grove, Pa., wondered the same thing.

Well, guys, you're not alone. Jonathan Turley, the famed legal scholar, says we may have a problem. And he will talk about it today during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Remember, the Junkie segment airs every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time on TOTN, NPR's call-in program, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes.

And remember, if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

You can listen to last week's show -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was the special guest -- here.

Wanna be on the Junkie mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

categories: Questions From The Reader

10:16 - January 21, 2009

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