Opinion

Gerende v. Board of Supervisors of Elections of Baltimore

  • 341 U.S. 56
  • 71 S. Ct. 565
  • 95 L. Ed. 2d 745
  • 1951 U.S. LEXIS 2015
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Filed
Apr 30, 1951
Status
Published
On the bench
Reed
Cited by
61 cases
Authority
More cited than 99.9%

requiring loyalty oath as a precondition to having one’s name on public ballot

How later courts described this case

  • requiring loyalty oath as a precondition to having one’s name on public ballot

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Per Curiam.

This is an appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeals of the State of Maryland the effect of which is to deny the appellant a place on the ballot for a municipal election in the City of Baltimore on the ground that she has refuséd to file an affidavit required by state law. Md. Laws 1949, c. 86, § 15. -Md.-, 78 A. 2d 660 . The scope of the state law was passed on in

Shub

v.

Simpson,

- Md. -, 76 A. 2d 332 . We read this decision to hold that to obtain a place on a Maryland ballot a candidate need only make oath that he is not a person who is engaged “in one way or another in the attempt

*57

to overthrow the government

by force or violence,”

and that he is not knowingly a member of an organization engaged in such an attempt. -Md. at-, 76 A. 2d at 338 . At the bar of this Court the Attorney General of the State of Maryland declared that he would advise the proper authorities to accept an affidavit in these terms as satisfying in full the statutory requirement. Under these circumstances and with this understanding, the judgment of the Maryland Court of Appeals is

Affirmed.

Mr. Justice Reed concurs in the result.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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