But the document does not tell the commerce secretary or state attorneys general what words to use. The presidency is different.
At the end of Article II, Section 1, the Constitution sets out the magic words that transform a politician into the president: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
That language may put you in mind of a citizenship test or jury duty, but there are scholars who say it supports the idea that the president has the power, at least in times of emergency, to violate the law and even the Constitution itself.
The prescribed text, in any event, does not give President-elect Barack Obama a lot of choices on Inauguration Day.
True, Franklin Pierce affirmed rather than swore. John Quincy Adams swore on a law book rather than a bible. And some presidents have appended “so help me God” to the standard text. That informal coda was long understood to have been added by George Washington at his first inauguration, though this is now disputed.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who will administer the oath, has sought guidance on that last point, according to court papers filed in response to a lawsuit challenging religious aspects of the inauguration. He had his counselor, Jeffrey P. Minear, contact Mr. Obama’s representatives, telling them that the chief justice “will honor the president-elect’s wishes” on “the inclusion of the phrase ‘so help me God’ after the conclusion of the constitutional oath.”
Mr. Obama, through an unnamed “authorized representative,” said he wanted the words included.
The Constitution has nothing to say about who should administer the oath. Though chief justices are popular, seven presidents have looked elsewhere. Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary public. Mr. Obama went with the majority view, notwithstanding having voted against Chief Justice Roberts’s nomination in the Senate.