10 U.S.C. § 502
Section 502 · Enlistment oath: who may administer
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)
Most recently applied in Drake v. Obama (December 2011)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Enlistment Oath.—Each person enlisting in an armed force shall take the following oath:
“I, ____________________, 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; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
(b) Who May Administer.—The oath may be taken before the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of Defense, any commissioned officer, or any other person designated under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
The words “or affirmation” are omitted as covered by the definition of the word “oath” in section 1 of title 1. The words “of any armed force” are inserted in the last sentence, since they are necessarily implied by their use in the source statute.
References in Text
The Uniform Code of Military Justice, referred to in the oath, is classified to chapter 47 (§801 et seq.) of this title.
Amendments
2006—Pub. L. 109–364 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), inserted heading, struck out concluding provisions which read as follows: “This oath may be taken before any commissioned officer of any armed force.”, and added subsec. (b).
1989—Pub. L. 101–189 struck out “or affirmation” after “This oath”.
1962—Pub. L. 87–751 substituted “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” for “bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America; that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever” and inserted “So help me God” in the oath, and “or affirmation” in text.
Effective Date of 1962 Amendment
Section 3 of Pub. L. 87–751 provided that: “This Act [amending this section and section 304 of Title 32, National Guard] does not affect any oath taken before one year after its enactment [Oct. 5, 1962].”