No Penalty Clause in Oath Bill; State Cannot Punish for Refusal

AN ACT REQUIRING THAT AN OATH OR AFFIRMATION BE TAKEN AND SUBSCRIBED TO BY CERTAIN PROFESSORS, INSTRUCTORS AND TEACHERS IN THE COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS OF THE COMMONWEALTH. BE IT ENACTED, ETC., AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Chapter seventy-one of the General Laws is hereby amended in inserting after section thirty, as appearing in the Tercentenary Edition, the following new section:--Section 30A. Every citizen of the United States entering service, on or after October first, nineteen hundred and thirty-five, as professor, instructor or teacher at any college, university, teachers' college, or public or private school, in the commonwealth shall, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, take and subscribe to, before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths, or, in case of a public school teacher, before the superintendent of schools or a member of the school committee of the city or town in whose schools he is appointed to serve, each of whom is hereby authorized to administer oaths and affirmations under this section, the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of (insert name of position) according to the best of my ability." Such oath or affirmation shall be so taken and subscribed to by him in duplicate. One of such document shall be filed with such superintendent of schools or principal officer of such college, university or school in the commonwealth and shall be transmitted by him to the commissioner of education, and the other shall be delivered by th subscriber to the board, institution or person employing him. No professor, instructor or teacher who is a citizen of the United States shall be permitted to enter upon his duties within the commonwealth unless and until such oath or affirmation shall have been so subscribed and one copy thereof so filed and the other so delivered.

Section 2. Every citizen of the United States who, upon the effective date of this act, is in service as a professor, instructor or teacher at any college, university, teachers' college, or public or private school, in the commonwealth, shall within sixty days after said date comply with the pertinent provisions of section thirty A of chapter seventy-one of the General Laws, inserted therein by section one of this act.

Section 2 A. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to interfere in any way with the basic principal of the constitution which assures every citizen freedom of thought and speech and the right to advocate changes and improvements in both the state and federal constitutions.

Section 3. This act shall take effect on October first in the current year. Approved June 26, 1935.