Category: Levinson Cynthia

"I Swear...!"

11/2/2021

Cynthia Levinson
A Scribe for Social Justice

The United States Constitution includes two oaths of office. The first, and better known one, is the presidential oath in Article Two, which reads, "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." Why does it include “affirm” in parentheses? Because the Framers understood that an incoming president might object to “swearing,” which could indicate an oath before God. This might also explain why the Constitution does not add “so help me God” at the end, although most modern oath-takers do so.

The second oath, in Article Six, similarly requires all national and state officials to “be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.”

Why are these provisions important? One answer is that our 18th-century forbears deeply believed in the magnitude of swearing oaths before God: violating an oath, after all, might lead to Divine, as well as secular, wrath.

Furthermore, note that allegiance is sworn to the federal Constitution. Before the Revolution, colonial officials swore fealty to the king. Afterward, but before the Constitution was ratified in 1788, state legislatures required members to swear loyalty to their particular state. As John Adams had said, “Massachusetts is our country.” The Framers debated which of these to follow—state or federal—and even whether to require oaths altogether. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued that they were unnecessary because “a good government did not need them and a bad one…ought not to be supported.”[i] Requiring allegiance to the federal government was a major step.

But there is another crucial question: Can we tell when someone is, or is not, obeying the oath? What does it mean, “to the best of my ability, [to] preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?” Donald Trump was impeached twice by the House of Representatives. Did he live up to the terms of his oath or not? How do we decide?
Presidents will always insist that they complied with the oath. Office-holders as varied as Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, among others argued that they had the power to interpret the Constitution to do what they believed counted as preserving, protecting and defending it. Other people say the Supreme Court is the “ultimate interpreter” and presidents must abide by the justices’ rulings. The South African Constitution, for example, makes it clear that that country’s Constitutional Court takes precedence over any contrary assertions by the President. Would you support that?

Thomas Foley Oath of Office, 1965 signed his oath as a congressman

George Washington’s first inauguration, from a painting by Ramon de Elorriaga, c. 1899 Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2013/01/18/inauguration-trivia-fascinating-firsts/#.YAYNyJNKhTZ

Many of the political issues we struggle with today have their roots in the US Constitution. Husband-and-wife team Cynthia and Sanford Levinson take readers back to the creation of this historic document and discuss how contemporary problems were first introduced―then they offer possible solutions.
"A fascinating, thoughtful, and provocative look at what in the Constitution keeps the United States from being “a more perfect union.” " Kirkus Reviews - Best Middle Grade Nonfiction of 2017

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Flu and the Constitution

12/11/2020

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Cynthia Levinson
A Scribe for Social Justice

Huh? What does the flu have to do with the US Constitution? Here’s what.

The 2017-2018 influenza season shaped up to be the worst on record since 1918, the infamous year when 20 to 50 million victims died of this highly infectious disease worldwide. By mid-season January 2018, the most common type, A(H3), was already widespread throughout forty-nine states and Puerto Rico. Doctor visits were three times higher than normal. And, the proportion of deaths continued to increase sharply. Warnings about the flu’s spread and severity and advice on how to try to avoid it appeared frequently in the media.

Fortunately, the flu vaccine reduced the chance of catching the virus and eased symptoms of those who did come down with it, even though the vaccine had been engineered for a different strain. But, what if the disease threatened to fell millions of Americans, overrunning hospitals, closing schools and businesses, and causing panic? Could the government contain its reach by forcibly quarantining people? After all, that’s what some governors did in 2014 when they feared Ebola might run rampant here. Or, might the president or the Federal Aviation Authority halt flights to Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico to at least contain it within the contiguous forty-eight states?

Unfortunately, our Constitution is vague about the situations under which the government can detain people during such a state of emergency. Normally, habeas corpus applies. This provision says that people have the right to be released from detention if the government can’t supply a reason to keep them locked up.

In 1787, when our Constitution was being drafted, the Framers debated whether there should be any exceptions to this right. Were there any grounds, they wondered, for keeping people confined for no legal reason and with no hope for release? They decided that “in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” But, a pandemic of bird flu from China, say, never occurred to the Framers. Would that be considered an invasion?

More recently, Congress gave the president the power to declare certain diseases “quarantinable” and to order the “apprehension…of individuals…for the purpose of preventing the introduction, transmission, or spread of such communicable diseases.” This is one of the government’s “police powers.” There are genuine questions, however, about what counts as such a disease and at what point in its spread the authorities can intervene. These are serious issues to consider—before an epidemic arrives.

Soldiers from Fort Riley Kansas lie ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward. It was the most famous and lethal flu outbreak ever to strike the United States, lasting from 1918 to 1919. It is not known exactly how many it killed, but estimates range from 50 to 100 million people worldwide.
-Courtesy National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP (Washington, D.C.)

US citizens initiated certain actions of their own during the Spanish flu pandemic. Here a Seattle trolley conductor refuses admission to anyone not wearing a mask.
-Wikimedia Commons

The World Health Organization remains on alert for a future pandemic characterized by sustained transmission in the general population.

Left: An influenza virus magnified about 100,000 times. Influenza spreads around the world in a yearly outbreak, resulting in about three to five million cases of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths. -Wikimedia Commons Right: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get a flu vaccine every season. -Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

MLA 8 Citation
Levinson, Cynthia. "Flu and the Constitution." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think
Tank, 14 Feb. 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/
flu-and-the-constitution.

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An Abecedary of Extinct Vocabulary

5/6/2020

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Cynthia Levinson
A Scribe for Social Justice

Absquatulate, means to: flee or escape

Boy running

Brabble: quarrel about unimportant matters
Curglaff: the shock of suddenly plunging into cold water
Deliciate: have fun
Excogigate: make a plan
Fuzzled: whoozy
Groak: watch someone eat in hopes of being invited
Hoddypeak: a fool
Hugger-mugger: to be secretive
Illicebrous: attractive
Jargogle: jumble or confuse
Jirble: pour messily
Kenspeckle: something that’s noticeable
Ludibrious: the flame or match used to light a fire

Kerosene lantern

Malagrugrous: dismal
Nail: a measure 2 ¼” long
Obambulate: wander
Pismire: a small insect

Soldier beetles and little black bugs

Quagswag: shake to and fro
Resistentialism: the appearance of bad behavior or thoughts by an inanimate object, such as a statue of a person who looks mean
Snoutfair: handsome
Twitter-light: twilight
Uliginous: slimy

Slimy Object

Verily: truly, certainly
Widdendream: confusion
Wonder-wrench: sweetheart
Xylomancy: telling the future by using the wood found in your path
Yex: hiccup
Zappy: lively

Usually, Cynthia writes “important” books for young readers about civil rights, social justice, and the Constitution, like this one, Fault Lines in the Constitution, which she wrote with her husband, Sanford Levinson, a law professor. Fault Lines shows the inequities in our constitution and the relationship between that document and issues arising today. But, she also has fun trying out circus tricks—and so do kids in her in-school and online visits.

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"I Swear...!"

Flu and the Constitution

An Abecedary of Extinct Vocabulary

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