BY THOMAS FITZGERALD  
Inquirer Staff Writer

Since 1951, the price of admission to the ballot in Pennsylvania has been a loyalty oath, a declaration that you are “not a subversive person.”

But that relic of the McCarthy era now may be on the way out—thanks to the Socialist Workers Party nominee for the State House in Philadelphia's 198th District, in Northwest Philadelphia.

John Staggs, a meatpacker, refused to sign the oath when he turned in his nominating petitions earlier this year, and also threatened to sue the state. In turn, Attorney General Tom Corbett told election officials to stop enforcing the requirement because it is unconstitutional.

“I believe their definition of ‘subversive’ can really apply to anyone,” Staggs, 59, said. ‘They want to be able to pick and choose, so they can use it versus people who are challenging the status quo.”

Getting rid of the loyalty oath, was, in fact, the major reason that he filed to run for the State House, Staggs said, along with a desire to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Staggs does not predict he’ll defeat incumbent Rep. Rosita Youngblood (D., Phila.) in November. He thinks, rather, that it’s important to make a stand against what he sees as government suppression of freedom because of the fear of terrorism.

“Look at all the rigmarole going on with the detention of prisoners in Guantanamo” and the government’s wiretapping program, Staggs said. “You can see why it’s important to get rid of a ‘loyalty’ oath.”

The 1951 state law’s broad definition of subversive is contained in a single confusing sentence of 100 words and 19 separate clauses. A subversive is anyone who advocates or participates in “any act intended to overthrow, destroy [or] alter” the government. At another point, the definition says that “advocacy” of “violence or force” is a prerequisite to being a subversive.

State loyalty oaths were declared unconstitutional in 1974, in the landmark Supreme Court case of Indiana Communist Party v. Whitcomb. The court found that Indiana’s oath violated free-speech rights by equating an abstract belief in radical change with inciting “imminent” violence.

Through inertia, the loyalty oath continued to be administered in most elections in Pennsylvania. But in 1975, then-Attorney General Robert P. Kane issued an opinion that it was unconstitutional to require state employees to take the oath. Kane did not address the provision that applied to political candidates.

On July 25, Corbett referred to Kane’s 31-year-old opinion and applied the reasoning to candidates, directing officials to “discontinue the oath unless and until the Whitcomb decision is overturned.”

The loyalty oath will remain on the books, the statutory equivalent of the human appendix. It would take an act of the legislature to formally repeal it.

“We are not going to be enforcing it, and going forward, we’re going to change the candidacy forms,” said Leslie Amoros, spokeswoman for the Department of State.

Several states still have laws requiring loyalty oaths similar to Pennsylvania’s, including California, Kansas, Illinois, and Arkansas.

“Nobody really pays any attention to them,” said Richard Winger, editor and publisher of Ballot Access News, which tracks election law nationwide.

Pennsylvania’s loyalty oath began to crumble with two challenges in Western Pennsylvania last year.

The Socialist Worker candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh, Jay M. Ressler, refused to sign the oath, and the Allegheny County elections board granted him a waiver. Then a University of Pittsburgh philosophy professor balked after he was elected as a write-in to the Stoneboro Council in Mercer County.

Professor Gerald J. Massey, who was an officer in the U.S. Marines, said he would swear to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and Pennsylvania, but refused to swear he was not subversive. Mercer County election officials said he couldn’t take office.

Massey stood his ground, and eventually the county solicitor issued an opinion declaring the subversive oath unconstitutional. He took office, and found that his mostly conservative Republican colleagues and neighbors supported his stand.

“I was asked to declare I’m not a ‘subversive,’ whatever that means,” said Massey, who described himself as a liberal Democrat. “I’m 72 years old and I remember the McCarthy times, what damage that kind of super-patriotism does to the country,” he said. “I would have gone to court if I had to…”

It took Staggs and the socialists to strike the blow that will free candidates for state offices from the loyalty oath.

Staggs said he plans to campaign hard—usually after he gets home from work packing ground beef at Moyers in Souderton. He will argue for stronger unions, workers’ rights and an end to “immigrant-bashing.”

Socialist Workers activists recently were among the protesters in Riverside, N.J., which had enacted a ban on illegal immigrants.

“I definitely think our party challenges the status quo, but I wouldn't call it subversive,” Staggs said. “We want working people to have power.”

Contact staff writer Thomas Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.

Socialist Workers Party candidates in 2006