Texto para a questão.

SWEARING ON THE BIBLE

By
Angela Stockton 

1 On November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) did not put his hand on the Bible when he took his oath of office [juramento de posse] as the new President. The book that he and the Secret Service agents thought was the Bible was in fact a missal, i.e., a book of prayers which Catholics used at Masses [Missas].

2 That didn’t make LBJ’s oath invalid. Because the Constitution specifically states that no religious test shall be required for public office [cargo público] in the United States, no public official needs to say “So help me, God,” or put his or her left hand on any book. LBJ’s oath would have been equally valid if he had put his left hand on a telephone book or a cookbook.

3 And Barack Obama did put his hand on a Bible for both his public inaugurations and undoubtedly at his third one. His third? Yes, if you recall, Chief Justice [Presidente da Suprema Corte dos EUA] John Roberts messed up the words of the oath when he swore in Obama at his first inauguration. (You had one job, John…) So that no one could say Obama was not validly inaugurated, Roberts went to the White House on the evening of January 20, 2009 and administered the oath again, in private. One hopes that he was reading it off the Constitution that time.

^{Adapted from Quora Digest, July 29, 2023.}

Which of the following is most supported by the information in the article?

• a

  Because of a Constitutional technicality, many U.S. citizens later considered President Lyndon Johnson’s oath of office invalid. 

• b

  In an emergency, any Christian religious book may serve to validate a new President’s oath of office. 

• c

  By the terms of the U.S. Constitution, Lyndon Johnson automatically became President after John F. Kennedy’s assassination and thus was not legally required to take an oath of office. 

• d

  Lyndon Johnson and the Secret Service agents may not have thoroughly checked the content of the book that was used in Johnson’s oath of office. 

• e

  After John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson and the Secret Service agents needed a Bible so he could officially become President.