Oath of Admission
While I am sure over the years there have been changes to The Florida Bar oath, the one thing that has always been a part of it is the signoff of “So help me God.”
It’s time we change that.
If lawyer demographics mirror the country, then 25% of us are agnostics or, like me, atheists.
Is this oath, which is regularly reprinted in the Bar Journal, even constitutional?
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states in part that, as judicial officers, we “…shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support the Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public trust under the United States.”
The Bar oath, as currently written, sure sounds like a religious test to me.
To those Christians and Jews who think this is trivial, let me ask the following: If by chance you needed to be sworn in pro hac vice in a Muslim country would you be happy to repeat “so help me Allah”?
Samuel Fields, Plantation
