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Fact check: What is the oath of office for members of the House of Representatives?
Executive Summary
The oath sworn by members of the U.S. House of Representatives is codified in 5 U.S.C. § 3331 and the text reads: “I, AB, 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; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” This wording is consistently reported across official House histories and legal codifications provided in the materials [1] [2] [3].
1. What Claimants Assert and Where the Text Comes From — The Core Legal Claim Unpacked
Multiple analyses assert the same statutory text as the House member oath, locating it in Title 5, Section 3331 of the U.S. Code. The House History, Art & Archives summaries present the oath verbatim and attribute it to the statutory rule for federal office oaths [1]. Independent legal summaries and codified law extracts reiterate that 5 U.S.C. § 3331 contains the oath language used by Members of Congress and other federal officers [2]. The repetition across these sources establishes a consistent claim: the oath’s current wording is statutory law and remains the operative pledge required of new Representatives. The primary claim is legal and textual rather than interpretive, and the identical phrasing appears in multiple venue summaries [1] [2] [3].
2. The Constitutional and Historical Thread — Roots, Statutory Adoption, and Older Acts
Analyses highlight the oath’s constitutional grounding and legislative history. The Sixth Article of the Constitution requires public officers to take an oath or affirmation; later statutory acts formalized the text now found in § 3331. One source explicitly references the act of May 13, 1884, and traces statutory lineage to the current codification [4]. Historical summaries from House archives discuss prior changes to the oath’s language and practice over time, indicating that while the constitutional requirement is longstanding, Congress and statutes have refined the operative wording and application for federal officers [5]. These historical notes tie the current text to a chain of legal enactments rather than a single origin story [4] [5].
3. Agreement Across Sources and Minor Variations — Consistency with Occasional Contextual Notes
All three sets of materials supplied here converge on the same operative wording for the oath and the same statutory citation, showing broad agreement among House archival descriptions and legal codifications [1] [2] [3]. Some materials emphasize procedural practice — that members take the oath on the House Floor at the opening of a new Congress — rather than repeating the text verbatim [6]. Another source adds context that the present version has been in use since a mid-20th-century revision (noted as 1966 in one analysis) while still pointing to § 3331 as the controlling statute [3]. These contextual notes complement rather than contradict the core textual claim [3] [6].
4. Comparative Context: Other Officers and Additional Oaths — Why the House Oath Looks Familiar
Materials contrast the House member oath with oaths taken by other federal officers to explain textual overlap and differences. For example, Supreme Court Justices take a constitution-support oath that mirrors the § 3331 text and a distinct judicial oath required by 28 U.S.C. § 453; analyses use this comparison to show how the § 3331 text functions as a common constitutional-support pledge across offices [7]. This comparison clarifies why language in swearing-in ceremonies across branches sounds similar: Congress, the executive branch, and federal judges use closely related statutory or constitutional oaths, with variations for role-specific duties. The comparison underscores that the House oath is part of a broader federal oath framework, not a unique ceremonial script [7].
5. Takeaway and Evidentiary Weight — How Reliable Is the Conclusion That § 3331 Is the Text?
The evidence in the supplied analyses is consistent and mutually reinforcing: official House archival summaries and legal codifications cite and quote the same oath text and statutory source [1] [2] [3]. Where dates are provided, sources published or revised in 2025 reiterate the statutory citation and wording, and historical notes trace this wording through prior acts such as the 1884 statute referenced in House historiography [4] [3]. Given this convergence, the claim that 5 U.S.C. § 3331 prescribes the oath used by House members is supported by multiple, recent, and historically grounded sources in the provided material [1] [2] [4].