Gov. Linda Lingle (R-HI) takes the oath of office upon a Jewish Torah on December 2, 2002, at the Hawaii State Capitol rotunda by Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Moon.
Consider this carefully. In that the Koran instructs Muslims to practice deceit against non-Muslims, there is absolutely no way an oath on the Koran could be deemed valid.
I'm ashamed that my fellow Americans put this guy in office in the first place. Don't they know better?
Stupid question, never mind.
Well, if you swear to uphold American laws on a book that encourages you to lie to infidels, just what are you swearing to do, exactly? ;)
shocking...a Mooselimb doing what Mooselimbs do.
If he doesn't want to swear on a bible, he shouldn't be forced to.
There is nothing in the Constitution that says any book should be used.
I am a conservative Christian, and I don't believe in forcing people into a religious expression that would be meaningless to them. I also think that the US Constitution should be strictly interpreted word-by-word. There is nothing in it about any requirement to take an oath on any book.
There is only a requirement to take an oath. I have not researched whether "taking an oath" in that day automatically meant that a bible would be used.
This is factually innacurate. There is absolutely no Consitutional requirement for House members or even the President to swear on the Bible when taking his oath of office - while Presidents have traditionally done so, it's not clear that any oath needs to be with one hand on the Bible to qualify as an oath (it likely doesn't), and under the Constitution, office holders can take an affirmation of office of office instead of an oath anyway. In fact, President Teddy Roosevelt didn't swear on the Bible when he became President after McKinley's death in 1901. One simply might not have been available at the time. He still became President.
House members are traditionally sworn in en masse by the Speaker on the first day of Congress immediately after the Speaker of the House is elected and sworn in. The 2005 swearing in ceremony is available on C-SPAN's website here. The Speaker is sworn in around 2:13:30 by the Dean of the House; the rest of Congress is sworn in shortly thereafter.
All Speaker Hastert asked members to do was raise their right hands while being sworn in. As a practical matter, the House floor normally seats 448 (they somehow squeeze in more seats for the State of the Union address), and there are up to 439 other members of the House (including non-voting members from the territories and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico) that need to be sworn in at that time. There isn't that much room on the floor for aides or family members to hold the Bible for Congressmen to swear on. So, as you can see from the video, most Congressmen appear to raise their right hand and put their left hand on nothing, at least during this ceremonial swearing in.
Now, there may be a chance for members to have a ceremonial one-on-one swearing in for photo-op purposes (or if the Member is not present at the opening of Congress or is later elected). For example, Congressman Rothman (D-NJ) has a picture of him being "sworn in" with his hand on what appears to be the Bible on his House website. This is when Ellison might swear on the Koran - for a photo-op.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1745413/posts
66 posted on 11/28/2006 5:51:13 PM CST by conservative in nyc
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The Constitution specifies in Article VI, clause 3:
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
We now return to the rightwing fever swamp, wich of course is sooo much different than the leftwing fever swamp, where all they do is rant and rave...not like us.