In some states violating an oath of office can carry criminal penalties.
Part of the problem is defining when an oath has been violated. What does, “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” really mean?
I think for president of the US the punishment for violating the oath of office is meant to be impeachment.
Not quite. For the President, the impeachment itself is meant to determine and establish a violation of the oath of office. And then to determine what course of action to take, given that. We’ve had four impeachments through our history, and not once has Congress concluded that such a violation occurred. So, we’ve never gotten past Step 1. We probably would have with Nixon but he got the loud message to resign before it even came up.
That said, I would agree with the sentiment that our system is not very well set up to handle such determinations.
And many of the Founders would have agreed had they been able to see some of the shortcomings. There’s an Amendment process for a reason, though it is itself a flawed one.
Didn’t trump, in some proceeding, try to claim he didn’t violate the oath of office because the presidency isn’t really an office? Sounds stupid, but I’m sure it was something like that.
That argument has been made:
DONALD J. TRUMP ,
Petitioner,
v.
NORMA A NDERSON, ET AL.,
Respondents.
On Writ of Certiorari to the
Colorado Supreme Court
REPLY BRIEF OF RESPONDENT COLORADO
REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE IN
SUPPORT OF REVERSALI. The President Is Not an “Officer of the
United States” Under Section Three of the
Fourteenth Amendment.
A. The President Is Not an Officer of the United
States.
Section Three disqualifies only those who served
in specific enumerated positions, including “as an
officer of the United States.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV,
§ 3. The President is not such an officer. (CRSCC Br.
§ I). The Anderson Respondents rely on the
Constitution’s occasional reference to the President as
holding an office. (And. Res. 34-35). But by its terms,
Section Three does not apply to anyone who held an
2 “office.” It applies specifically to those people who
served as an “officer of the United States.” And that
term of art, read in constitutional context as
recognized by scholarly sources like Justice Story,
does not include the President. - SOURCE
The argument was that POTUS isn’t an “officer” so can’t be disqualified (per Section 3 of the 14th Amendment) by doing something outlandish like insurrection.
The Colorado Supreme Court disagreed and said that the POTUS was an officer. The case never got before SCOTUS though.
This reminds me of One Way Pendulum, in which Eric Syke’s character says there are certain passages in the Bible that he objects to, but is prepared to swear on a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. "Do you swear, by Harriet Beecher Stowe … "