Things you might not know about the presidential inauguration.

So you all know what's happening on Sunday right? and Monday for that matter.  We are inaugurating our next US president Barack Obama.

Now why are we doing it twice? well tradition really. See the date of the inauguration is mandated by the Constitution as January 20th (previously march 4th prior to the passage of the 20th amendment) no matter what.

The problem is that occasionally January 20th (and march 4th) wind up on a Sunday, and apparently a good christian cant take the oath on the Sabbeth and even if he does, we as a country cant celebrate it.

And yes I know it sounds insane. But I'm not kidding. The first time it came up, the incoming president refused flat out to take the oath, leading us to arguably have a President for the Day being the highest ranking official who could in theory take the oath. Every other time thats come up though the president sucks it up and takes the oath on Sunday in private, then does it again on Monday with the usual trappings.

Heres the funny thing about the oath, even with the things that arnt of the "usual trappings", and are assumed to happen at the private ceremony not a one of them is actually ever required.

See everyone assumes that the oaths are always the Chief Justice swearing in the new president on at least one bible (HW Bush, Nixon, Carter, Eisenhower, Truman, and next Monday, Obama, will have all used two).

But thats not actually a requirement, in part because doing so would be a violation of the 1st amendment. (think a Jew is gonna want to take the oath on a bible? how about a Buddhist or an atheist?) In fact at least 3 presidents have been sworn in at least once without any bible present. Both Teddy Roosevelt and LBJ did not use a bible when they were first sworn in to office. Granted both of them inherited the office upon the assassinations of their predecessors (McKinley and Kennedy) so those were not planned, which might be seen as the "excuse" by some.

But then famously their is John Quincy Adams, who also refused to take the oath of office on a bible, and instead opted to take the oath on a law book. Now what people might find even more shocking though, is that its possible that wasnt actually as unusual as people assume. See the official inaugural records of a lot of the early presidents didnt make it/werent well recorded. So we dont actually know (with the execption of Washington's and Polk's first oath) what any president until Lincoln actually used. Now to be fair Lincoln was pretty clearly not the "1st" to use a bible or even the 3rd after Washington and Polk, based on how the events were documented it was a well held tradition by then.

The issue is thats also true for the documentation of the JQA oath. The only reason we know about it is because he happened to mention it in his memoirs. But not in such a way to suggest he was a rebel, more of a "for accuracy sake" and nothing in his writing suggests it was an unusual choice for that generation of presidents.

Pure speculation here, but given that Thomas Jefferson was attacked in all 3 of his presidential races (both the two he won and the one he lost to John Adams that made him VP) for being an Atheist, mixed with the fact that his time as president would have been the time he actually made his bible (by removing all the mystical parts with scissors) it would be beliable he also didn't use a bible at his inaugurations.

The other thing people take for granted, that isnt actually part of the requirements is the part about the chief justice. He actually doesn't have to administer the oath. Again we have Teddy Roosevelt and LBJ, one of whom was sworn in by US district court Judge John Hazel (TR) and the other, by US district court judge Sarah T. Hughes (only woman to administer the Oath) (LBJ). And we also have John Tyler and Millard Filmore (both by US circuit court Judge William Cranch) who like TR and LBJ came to power on the death (by natural causes) of their predecessors.

Similarly Chester A. Arthur was first sworn in NY Supreme Court Judge John R. Brady, after the assassination of James Garfield, but worries about the legitimacy of a non federal judge led to him being resworn 2 days later in DC by the Chief Justice. Legitimacy concerns also caused Calvin Coolidge to be sworn in twice, after the first oath administered by his father after the death of President Harding was rumored to be illigitamate. So he was sworn in again DC by Circuit Court Judge Adolph A. Hoehling, Jr. 3 weeks later.

Now whats worth noting is that its not clear either of the first oath's Arthur and Coolidge took were actually illegitimate. Much like Obama's decision to redo the oath in 2009 after it was botched they just wanted to play it safe. By the way the other 5 times the oath was botched  (Taft, Hoover, FDR's 3rd, Truman's 1st and LBJ's 2nd) it was not done over.

And the reason for both the confusion on who can give the oath of if a botch means a do over is the same, the Constitution doesn't say, so we dont know, even in the cases where the VP isnt being sworn in as president (as was the case in all the above) it doesn't have to be the chief justice.

That said only 1 president (other then Tyler Filmore and Arthur who never had terms in their own right) was never sworn in by any Chief Justice and the answer might be surprising since the justification for a lot of the pageantry/unwritten around the oath (and the presidency) is we are doing what George Washington did.

Now if you think about it, its not that shocking that the Chief Justice didnt administer Washington's first oath. The Chief Justice is appointed by the president, which makes having one a problem if you havnt sworn in a president yet. So Washington's first oath was administered by Robert R. Livingston, who was the Chancellor of New York (roughly the equivalent of state Supreme Court Chief Justice). But by Washington's Second term we had a Chief Justice, but he was still sworn in by Associate Justice William Crushing, instead of the Chief Justice John Jay (making Jay the only confirmed Chief Justice never to administer the oath)

And of course there is one last thing about the oath, that isnt actually required, that everyone assumes is: "so help me god". The oath is written directly into the Constitution and that line isnt in it, but Washington ad-libbed it during his first inauguration , or at least thats the usual claim.

Not much evidence supports that though, nor does it really seem any president until Lincoln actually said that . Usually the pre Lincoln presidents would end with "I so swear" or "I do", however Franklin Pierce actually ended his with "I affirm". Post Lincoln only TR is officially mentioned as having declined that specific line, opting for "and thus I swear" instead, however the national archives is only willing to confirm the line's inclusion in the Oath since FDR, however they may be referring to the Chief Justice prompting of the line and not the "spur of the moment" addition of the line.

So there you go, now you can watch the inauguration on Monday and show off to your friends.....at least until they force you to change the channel to NCIS reruns because your a nerd.