Are the State and Local Officials Legally Holding Their Offices?

The oath of office contained in Article XX, Section 3 contains a relic from the McCarthy era: a loyalty oath for state and local office holders. It was ruled invalid in 1967. Yet a group called the Free Enterprise Society complains that all state and local officials are holding office illegally because they haven't taken the oath of office with the full constitutionally-prescribed oath. Carlos Alcala of the Sacramento Bee reports here. Of course, if this group brought a lawsuit, the judges hearing it would have to recuse themselves, because they hadn't taken the supposedly required oath, either. No doubt the "rule of necessity" would kick in, enabling the judges to dispatch this claim with celerity.