1. The original draft of this article was written in the second week of the PATCO strike. We then heard a great deal about the oath of office. President Reagan said the striking air traffic controllers had been fired because they had violated their oath not to strike. At other times he said they had been fired because they had broken the law by striking. The second statement was more accurate than the first. The controllers took an oath to uphold the Constitution and to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter." They made a promise, not an oath, that they would refrain from striking. The text clarifies the difference.I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God. I am not participating in any strike against the government of the United States or any agency thereof, and I will not so participate while an employee of the government of the United States or any agency thereof. I have not nor has anyone acting in my behalf given, transferred, promised or paid any consideration for or in expectation or hope of receiving assistance in securing this appointment. Strikes by federal employees are illegal. The President may well have acted correctly in firing the strikers. A suitable reason for firing them could have been simply that they had knowingly and openly violated the law in a serious matter and had been warned of the consequences of their act. There was no need to mention an oath. To do so trivialized the oath of office by reducing a profound moral commitment to a shallow legalism. For a further discussion of the oath of office, see my article, "The Constitution and the Profession," which will appear in a forthcoming (1983) issue of Review of Public Personnel Administration.
2. Some fine scholarly work has already been done through Project 87-a joint undertaking by the American Political Science Association and the American Historical Association.
3. Kurland, Philip B. 1970.Politics The Constitution and the Supreme Court, xChicago: University of Chicago Press.
4. Drucker, Peter M. 1954.The Practice of Management, 122New York: Harper and Row.