Outdated oath still has to be taken by Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners

We’ve previously carried stories about the oath taken by Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners—how it refers to steam boats, sleeping car lines, telegraph lines and even canals.

Commissioner Bob Anthony, who took his 6th such oath on Monday thinks it’s obviously outdated, but he still swears to the oath, because in his opinion, it’s the constitution.

And it caught the attention of Tulsa World editor Wayne Green. Today we share what he wrote about the oath.

 

Before we get too far from Monday’s inauguration, let’s talk about the oath of office the state requires from corporation commissioners.

All state elected official take a similar oath, swearing to defend the constitutions of the U.S. and Oklahoma, do the job outlined in state law and not to take any money or other valuable thing “for the performance or nonperformance of any act or duty pertaining to my office, other than the compensation allowed by law.”

It isn’t poetry, but it touches all the important bases. 

As my colleague Randy Krehbiel pointed out in his inauguration coverage on Monday, there’s a special additional oath required for the state’s three corporation commissioners.

Take a look:

“I do swear that I am not, directly or indirectly, interested in any railroad, street railway, traction line, canal, steam boat, pipe line, car line, sleeping car line, car association, express line, telephone or telegraph line, nor in the bonds, stocks, mortgages, securities, contract or earnings of any railroad, street railway, traction line, canal, steam boat, pipe line, car line, sleeping car line, car association, express line, telephone or telegraph line; and that I will, to the best of my ability, faithfully and justly execute and enforce the provisions of this Constitution, and all the laws of this State concerning railroads, street railways, traction lines, canals, steam boats, pipe lines, car lines, sleeping car lines, car associations, express lines, telephone and telegraph lines, compress and elevator companies, and all other corporations over which said Commission has jurisdiction.”

It’s a 1907 oath — required by Article 9, Section 17 of our 1907 constitution — and, not surprisingly, it’s got a few 1907 anachronisms in it.

At 137 words, the oath manages to mention canals, steamboats and telegraph lines three times, although the Corporation Commission currently isn’t regulating any canals, steamboats or telegraph lines.

I asked Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony, who took the oath for the sixth time Monday, what a traction line is.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t think I could tell you.”

(As near as I can figure from the internet, a traction line is a kind of electrical railroad, although there’s a fair amount of speculation and dot connecting in that. At any rate, Anthony has sworn not to invest in the bonds of any of them.) 

In the past, when their elections coincided with governors, commissioners have taken the first oath — the one about the performance or nonperformance of their duties — in the big ceremony in front of the Capitol and the second oath — forswearing canal investments — in a separate moment with a little less public viewing.

Anthony said he asked to have both his oaths part of Monday’s public ceremony, despite the slightly antiquated nature of the language.

He sees it as a public reminder of the Founding Fathers mandate for the commission to represent the people aggressively against big companies. 

The Oklahoma Constitution devotes more words to the powers and responsibilities of the commission than are contained in the entire U.S. Constitution, he pointed out.

In that language is a great deal of power to protect ordinary citizens, he said.

The state constitution charges the commission with regulating a whole host of big corporations, correcting their “abuses” and “preventing unjust discrimination and extortion.”

It’s a job that is only done right, of course, if it’s done honestly. In 1992, Anthony was the key prosecution witness in a federal bribery case that sent another corporation commissioner and a utility attorney to prison.

It was a critical moment in the history of the Corporation Commission, and it made the career of Anthony. Whatever else we know about him, we knew these things: He is honest, and he is on the people’s side.

If all that stuff about canals and sleeping car lines sounds a little dated, and it is, Anthony says the commission’s constitutional job is still as fresh as your monthly utility bill, and he’s proud to swear off street railway investments publicly on the front steps of the Capitol for everyone to hear.

“Why?” he asked. “Because the constitution says so.”