take an oath

In a retirement speech in September 2023, Milley — who worries about being recalled to active duty and court-martialed under a new Trump administration, according to Woodward’s latest book, “War” — offered an indirect commentary widely presumed to refer to the former president: “We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen, to a tyrant or dictator, or wannabe dictator.”

“You take an oath to defend the Constitution, and it is well understood that you pursue cases based on the facts and the law, not for partisan or political reasons.”

When they choose the president in November, they need to remember that they are giving that person the power to nominate federal judges who, like Cannon, may feel greater loyalty to the president who appoints them than to the Constitution that they take an oath to uphold.

Those who succeeded in proving marital harmony were then be paraded shoulder-high by bearers in the "ancient Flitch Chair" to the town's Market Place, to take an oath.

It's a blatant act of defiance of the spirit of the law from a group of people who take an oath to uphold it.