Article II, Section 1, Clause 8:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The Article II oath’s requirement that the President swear or affirm to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” to the best of the President’s ability is textually distinct from the general oath required of federal and state officials in Article VI, which requires that an official swear or affirm “to support this Constitution.” 1 The text of these provisions does not indicate what relationship, if any, exists between the president’s duty to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution and the official’s duty to “support” it. At least one delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787 appears to have believed that Article VI’s requirement of “support” would include a duty to “preserve, protect and defend.” According to James Madison’s notes, Delegate James Wilson of Pennsylvania rejected the proposed addition of this language to the presidential oath on the grounds that “the general provision for oaths of office, in a subsequent place, rendered the amendment unnecessary.” 2 The amendment was nonetheless adopted.3

The version of the oath objected to by James Wilson at the Federal Convention would have required the President swear or affirm that they will “to the best of [their] judgment and power, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 4 The oath as ratified has the President swear or affirm that they will take such actions “to the best of [their] Ability.” Records of the Convention do not explain the change from “judgment and power” to “ability.” 5

Footnotes

1

See U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 3. See generally .

2

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, at 427 (Max Farrand ed., 1911) (Madison’s notes, Aug. 27, 1787).

3

Id.

4

Id.

5

See id. at 621 (Journal, Sept. 15, 1787) (recording a change from “judgment” to “abilities” but offering no further explanation).