Louisiana Voice

“I (elected or appointed individual) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution and laws of the United States and the constitution and laws of this State; and I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as (elected or appointed position), and according to the best of my ability and understanding. So help me God.”

The foregoing is the so-called “loyalty oath” to which all Louisiana State hires or elected officials must fill out—in writing as a condition of employment or elective office.

The second part of the oath reads, “A person may be temporarily employed for fifteen days, and if the above statement is not filed by the fifteenth day, he shall be discharged.”

The loyalty oath has been around since the end of the Civil War and were first adopted by state and federal governments as “test oaths” which the Supreme Court said exceeded a pledge of future loyalty when it struck down the law in 1867. That decision established the principle which continues today: loyalty oaths cannot be used o punish people retroactively for past beliefs or associations. The court considered that a violation of the First Amendment.

With the advent of the Cold War, the most aggressive expansion of loyalty oaths was undertaken with a demand that public employees swear they were not members of the Communist Party or any organization advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. That, it turned out, was called a “negative oath” which led to a wave of litigation with the so-called “affirmative oath,” which ask for a pledge of future support of the Constitution and the law, emerging as the oaths administered today. The difference is that today’s oaths do not typically demand that one disclaim membership in any group.

State Sen. Tony Guarisco of Morgan City attempted in 1986 to scrap the oath because of what he considered as a violation of the First Amendment.

“It never got out of committee,” he remembers. “I was the only ‘yes’ vote. Committee members ridiculed a young LSU professor who was the only person to testify. He testified in favor of the bill.”

The loyalty oath was weaponized as a result of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, which in turn was spawned by McCarthyism and his Red Scare tactics. Two of the members of the HCUA were from Louisiana: U.S. Reps. Ed Willis of St. Martinville, the committee chair, and F. Edward Hebert of New Orleans.

Since the [State Senate] committee wanted to keep the law in place, I asked the governor’s appointees who required [Senate] confirmation, “Are you now or were you ever…”

One appointee, he said, stormed out of the committee room yelling that Guarisco had called him a communist.

“The loyalty oath is still in effect,” Guarisco said, “but it’s hidden as part of R.S. 42:52 (ed seq) that people such as college professors have to sign.

“Years ago, a young, highly sought-out English professor from another state was recruited by USL (not ULL). He declined to sign the oath and was not hired.”

Guarisco, 87, served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1976-1988. He received his law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans.

First elected in 1975, he sponsored a bill to permit physicians in Louisiana prescribe marijuana for therapeutic treatment of glaucoma and in treatment by chemotherapy. Gov. Edwin Edwards signed his bill into law and the Marijuana Control Board was created to monitor the law but the panel never functioned and was abolished in 1989 by Gov. Bubby Roemer who eliminated many other inactive boards and commissions.

He was an early supporter of the failed Equal Rights Amendment and he created and served as the first Senate parliamentarian, designing a process for confirming gubernatorial appointees. He founded the Endowed Chairs for Eminent Scholars program in higher education and the LSU Endowment for Excellence, pioneered admission standards for LSU, and laws regarding open meetings and public records. He was the lead author on legislation to prevent punitive damages against the press. In 1981, he was the floor manager for the impeachment and removal of state Senator Gaston Gerald of Greenwell Springs, convicted of extortion.

He was succeeded in the State Senate by future Gov. Mike Foster in 1988.