This month we continue our exploration of the Georgia History Festival theme, “United States Constitution: Ensuring Liberty and Justice for All,” with a look at collection items that relate to oaths, debts, supremacy, and ratification.
Bell Receiving the Attorney General Oath of Office from Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, January 1977. Griffin B. Bell Papers.
In this photo Griffin B. Bell is administered the oath of office as attorney general by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger in January 1977. Pictured at left is President Jimmy Carter, and holding the Bible is Mrs. Griffin B. Bell. The attorney general is responsible for the entire Department of Justice. As such, all individuals, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: “I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”