Bill Text: NJ A3688 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Removes outdated reference to kissing Bible formerly associated with administration and solemnity of oaths in court or any legal proceeding.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-09-18 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee [A3688 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-A3688-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman RONALD S. DANCER
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Removes outdated reference to kissing Bible formerly associated with administration and solemnity of oaths in court or any legal proceeding.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning oaths administered in court or any legal proceeding, and amending R.S.41:1-4.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. R.S.41:1-4 is amended to read as follows.
41:1-4. It shall not be necessary to the solemnity or obligation of an oath administered in any court of justice or any legal proceeding, civil or criminal, in this state, for the person taking the oath to kiss the holy scriptures, but the taking of such oath, while the hand shall be held upon the book, shall answer all the purposes and requirements of the law, any usage or custom to the contrary heretofore notwithstanding. If any persons so sworn shall swear falsely they shall be guilty of perjury [as though the book had been kissed].
(cf: R.S.41:1-4)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would remove an outdated reference to kissing the Bible, an act formerly associated with the administration of oaths in court or any legal proceeding and the solemnity of such oaths.
Under R.S.41:1-4, it states that if a person takes an oath using a Bible, the oath shall bind the person and make the person guilty of perjury for false testimony without the need to kiss the book. The statutory language can be traced back to at least the 19th century, see P.L.1899, c.193, when it would have been more common for oath-taking to be done by placing one's hand on a Bible and then kissing it to demonstrate the solemnity of the oath.
The reference to binding an oath-taker "as though the book had been kissed" is now outdated; taking an oath today, even when done with a hand on the Bible, typically does not include kissing the book. As such, the bill would remove the language from the statute.
