Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction of Orange Cty.

A Florida statute requires each employee of the State or its subdivisions to execute a written oath in which he must swear that, among other things, he has never lent his “aid, support, advice, counsel or influence to the Communist Party.” Failure to subscribe to this oath results under the law in the employee's immediate discharge.

After the appellant had been employed for more than nine years as a public school teacher in Orange County, Florida, it was discovered in 1959 that he had never been required to execute this statutory oath. When requested to do so he refused. He then brought an…