Oh Say, Can You Swear on a Koran?
December 3rd, 2006 | by Walter Greenspan |According to a well known Jewish commentator, Dennis Prager: “No.”
But, among the most reasoned of responses, Eugene Volokh covers the “how un-American†angle, beating Prager’s comments to a Constitutional pulp.
For those who may not be familiar with the term Tanakh, this is an acrostic of Torah (The Law), Nevi’im (The Prophets) and Ketuvim (The Writings) and constitutes the Jewish understanding of the Bible. Linda Lingle, the Governor of Hawaii, was sworn in on the Tanakh.
Eugene Volokh is Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, and a coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy blog.
2 Responses to “Oh Say, Can You Swear on a Koran?”
By Jim - PRS on Dec 3, 2006 | Reply
No Congressman or Senator swears on any book. They are sworn in en masse, simply by raising their right hand. The state the oath prescribed by the Constitution. Some have private (legally meaningless) ceremonies in their offices where they swear on Bibles or whatever.
By The Polish Wolf on Dec 4, 2006 | Reply
That is an excellent response. I have to admit all I could think when reading the Prager article was: “What about Quakers?”, because I was quite sure that they don’t take oaths. Volokh was good to point out the cultural concession that early in our history. Thanks for posting those two very interesting pieces.