Cummings v. Missouri

Cummings v. Missouri, 71 U.S. 277 (1867), 4 Wall 277, 18 L. 350, also known as the Test-Oath case, is an 1867 landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which the court held in a 5-4 decision that both state and national oath laws are unconstitutional. Cummings was a companion case of Ex parte Garland, which were also referred to as the Test-Oath Cases. Cummings involved Fr John A. Cummings, a Catholic priest who refused to take an anti-Confederacy oath that was required by the Missouri Constitution; the lower court found him guilty of perjury and sentenced to pay a $500 fine and imprisonment of not less than two years.

Cummings' defense argued that the charges violated the prohibitions of Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution of the United States, prohibiting bills of attainder and ex post facto laws. The Supreme Court decision came just after the American Civil War. Justice Stephen J. Field wrote a concurring opinion stating: "Both state and national oath laws were unconstitutional. The oath laws transformed acts that had not been forbidden into crimes and increased the punishment of acts that were known to be crimes. The oath laws were also bills of attainder since they were legislative acts that inflicted punishment without the benefit of a trial by a judge."

Background

In January 1865, during the American Civil War period; A Missouri Constitutional convention to amend the Constitution of Missouri was held in St. Louis, Missouri.