The administrator of the oath
While the Constitution does not mandate that anyone administer the oath, the oath is typically administered by the Chief Justice, but sometimes by another federal or state judge (George Washington was first sworn in by Robert Livingston, the chancellor of the State of New York in 1789, while Calvin Coolidge was first sworn in by his father, a Justice of the Peace and a Vermont notary public who lived in a home without electricity, phone, or running water, in 1923). By convention, incoming Presidents raise their right hand and place the left on a Bible or other book while taking the oath of office.

William R. King is the only president or vice president sworn into office on foreign soil. By special act of Congress, he was allowed to take his oath for the office of the Vice President on March 24, 1853 in Cuba, where he had gone because of his poor health.[3] He died 25 days later.

From 1789 through 2009, the swearing-in has been administered by 15 Chief Justices, one Associate Justice, three federal judges, two New York state judges, and one notary public. Though anyone legally authorized to administer an oath may swear in a President, to date the only person to do so who was not a judge was John C. Coolidge, Calvin Coolidge's father, a notary whose home the then-Vice President was visiting in 1923 when he learned of the death of President Warren G. Harding.

Sarah T. Hughes is the only woman to administer the oath of office (she was a U.S. District Court judge who swore Lyndon Johnson into office on Air Force One after the Kennedy assassination).


[edit] The option of taking an oath or an affirmation
Franklin Pierce was the only president known to use the word affirm rather than swear. Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible when taking the oath in 1901. Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, and Richard Nixon swore the oath on two Bibles. John Quincy Adams swore on a book of law.[4] Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on a Roman Catholic missal on Air Force One. Washington kissed the Bible afterwards, and subsequent presidents followed suit, up to Harry Truman,[5], but Dwight Eisenhower broke that tradition by saying his own prayer instead of kissing the Bible.[6] Barack Obama used a Bible when taking the oath the first time, but then did not use a Bible when re-taking the oath in private the following day.

Forms of administering the oath
There have been two forms of administering, and taking, the oath of office.

The first, now in disuse, is where the administrator articulates the constitutional oath in the form of a question, and modifying the wording from the first to the second person, as in, "Do you George Washington solemnly swear ...", requesting an affirmation. At that point a response of "I do" or "I swear" completes the oath.

It is believed that this was the common procedure at least until the early 20th century. In 1881, the New York Times article covering the swearing in of Chester A. Arthur, reported that he responded to the question of accepting the oath with the words, "I will, so help me God."[7] In 1929, Time magazine reported that the Chief Justice began the oath uttering, "You, Herbert Hoover, do you solemnly swear . . ."[8] Hoover replied with a simple "I do".

In the second, and current form, the administrator articulates the oath in the affirmative, and in the first person, so that the President takes the oath by repeating it verbatim.

Many times the President-elect's name is added after the "I"; for example, "I, George Washington, do . . ." Lyndon B. Johnson did not add his name when swearing his first oath of office after Kennedy's death; there is evidence that in all other inaugurations since Franklin Roosevelt's first, the name of the president was added to the oath.