Swearing Is Bad

During the McCarthy era, the California Legislature mandated that state-school employees sign a loyalty statement renouncing any "organization which advocates the overthrow of the Government by force or violence." Despite protests of intrusion upon free speech, allegiance oaths to secure government employment, commonplace at the height of the Cold War, remain on the books of several states. A signed form (sample below) agreeing to "support and defend" the federal and state constitutions "against all enemies foreign and domestic" is required of 47,000 faculty and staff employed by the 450,000-student California State University system.

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Last fall, when American Studies expert Wendy Gonaver, a Quaker pacifist, objected to signing the oath, her offer to lecture at Cal State Fullerton was rescinded. In March, however, Cal State East Bay math teacher Marianne Kearney-Brown, also Quaker, won a grievance hearing and was reinstated after being fired for inserting the word "nonviolently" into her allegiance statement.

On June 2, civil liberties watchdog People for the American Way persuaded CSU to announce a compromise with Gonaver allowing her to attach an explanatory statement to "accommodate" her "religious beliefs" (while ensuring "that any such statement does not undermine or qualify the oath"). Gonaver's statement: "As an American, I do object … to being compelled to sign such an oath, and want to state my belief that such compulsion violates my right to freedom of speech" (Page 2). She will teach constitutional freedoms beginning in September.

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