Justice Clarence Thomas's latest legal gaffe was uttered in a speech to unsuspecting college students at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. ( http://news.yahoo.com/... ).
You might not believe that a Supreme Court Justice did not know the Constitution, but according to that purportedly learned man, an oath requires the phrase ‘So help me God’ at the end to be binding.
We know different. The oath of the President, required by Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 8 reads (and has always read) as follows:
"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.”
And to add the icing on the cake, the Constitution provides in Article 6, Section 3, paragraph 3:
"no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".
Here we have the spectacle of a sitting member of the Highest Court in the country, the Court that has the final say on what the Constitution requires or forbids, publicly misstating an easily ascertainable fact about the contents of the one document with which he is presumed to be completely familiar.
We have to ask: "What else doesn't Justice Thomas know about the Constitution?"
Why does this man get a pass for his repeated flouting of the rule of law?