Repeal
In 1936, several well-respected educators, including Morison and Mather, joined together to form the Massachusetts Society for Freedom in Teaching (MSFT) to coordinate efforts to repeal the oath legislation. This organization worked closely with educational leaders like Conant and President Daniel Marsh of Boston University to lobby for repeal. As a result of the November elections, sixty representatives who supported the oath were not returned to the House, and oath opponents hoped that this change could lead to repeal.
The Republican House and Senate did pass repeal legislation in March 1937, but the vote in both chambers proved very close: 21–19 in the Senate, and 120–112 in the House. Democratic Governor Charles Francis Hurley vetoed the legislation, claiming that it was an important part of the fight against radicals and Communists. Opponents of the oath in the House were unable to muster the two-thirds majority required to override Hurley's veto, which was sustained by a vote of 101–100.
A similar repeal effort failed in 1939, and although newly elected Republican Governor Leverett Saltonstall indicated that he would sign a repeal bill, it failed to pass the state legislature.
The teachers' oath legislation remained in force until invalidated by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1967 in its ruling on Pedlosky v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Massachusetts General Court passed legislation to repeal all loyalty oaths in 1986, which was signed by Governor Michael Dukakis.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts Teachers' Oath
Famous quotes containing the word repeal:
“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)
“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)
“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature—opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice.... Repeal the Missouri compromise—repeal all compromises—repeal the declaration of independence—repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)