President to take oath twice, on two Bibles

When President Barack Obama stands in front of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people outside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21 it will be the 57th presidential inauguration this country has witnessed.

This year however the president will technically partake in two inaugurations. Jan. 20 serves as the seventh time in history that - due to the date of inauguration falling on a Sunday - another swearing-in ceremony will be held that Monday.

According to section one of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, “the terms of the president and the vice president shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of senators and representatives at noon on the third day of January…. the terms of their successors shall then begin.”

This section of the U.S. Constitution changed the presidential inauguration date from March 4 to Jan. 20 and the section was ratified in 1933. The amendment was enforced in 1937 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second-term inauguration, according to information from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Due to this amendment the president will initially have a private swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20 by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr., according to an announcement made by the Presidential Inauguration Committee on Jan. 4. Vice President Joe Biden will be sworn in by Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the same dates.

But since the 20th of January falls on a Sunday this year President Obama will do as his predecessors have done before him and hold a second inauguration ceremony on the following Monday, Jan. 21, for the public.

The public inauguration on Monday will occur to supplement Sunday’s because that public institutions such as courts are traditionally closed on Sundays.

The first inauguration to fall on a Sunday was President James Monroe’s second swearing-in in 1821 and the second was the inauguration of President Zachary Taylor in 1849.

Both chose to have a public swearing-in on the following Monday and no private inauguration the day before. Their reasoning for this was that public institutions were closed on those days, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

President Rutherford B. Hayes started the idea of two-day inauguration procedures in 1877 when he took office and his inauguration date fell on a Sunday. However instead of swearing-in privately on Sunday he instead did so on that Saturday, according to committee members.

Committee members said that the first presidential inauguration to commence on a Sunday and Monday was that of President Woodrow Wilson in 1917.

Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald W. Reagan also had two ceremonies, one private swearing-in on Sunday and a public oath ceremony on that following Monday.

With all these past irregularities in inauguration procedures the swearing-in of one president stands out from the rest. That president is Omaha, Neb. native Gerald Ford.

President Ford, the 38th president to serve, is the only president not to be voted into office as president or vice president.

The president previously had served in Congress for 25 years before President Richard Nixon appointed him as vice president in 1973 after the resignation of the current vice president Spiro T. Agnew.

President Nixon, facing criminal charges surrounding the Watergate Scandal resigned on Aug. 9 1974 making that the day of Ford’s hasty inauguration. President Ford was sworn in by Chief Justice of the United States at the time Warren E. Burger, according to the online Britannica Encyclopedia.

“I assume the presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts. Therefore I feel it is my first duty to make an unprecedented compact with my countrymen,” President Ford said during his inauguration speech.

“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers and I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many. You have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises… I am indebted to no man and only to one woman, my wife.”

President Ford served for two-and-a-half years before being defeated in the next presidential election by his Democrat opponent President Jimmy Carter.

Another twist to President Obama’s public inauguration on Monday will be the swearing-in by two Bibles, according to various news sources – one being the Huffington Post. Since that Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day it is said that the president will be swearing-in with both Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and Martin Luther King Jr.’s.

President Obama said in an announcement offered by the Presidential Inauguration Committee that he is excited for his public inauguration day, not just for himself and for the vice president but also for the American people.

“I will be honored to again stand on the Inaugural platform and take part in this important American tradition,” said President Obama. “I look forward to having Chief Justice John Roberts administer my oath of office as we gather to celebrate not just a president or vice president, but the strength and determination of the American people.”