No person shall be employed or associated in any capacity in any civil preparedness organization established under this chapter who advocates a change by force or violence in the constitutional form of the government of the United States or of this state or the overthrow of any government in the United States by force or violence, or who has been convicted of or is under indictment or information charging any subversive act against the United States. Each person who is appointed to serve in an organization for civil preparedness shall, before entering upon his or her duties, and every two years thereafter, take an oath orally before a local civil preparedness officer or officers empowered by the commissioner to enlist volunteers, which oath shall be substantially as follows: “I, ...., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Connecticut, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.” Each local civil preparedness officer shall provide to the department a roster of sworn volunteer civil preparedness force members on or before the fifteenth of August each year.

(June, 1951, S. 1916d; 1957, P.A. 380; 1959, P.A. 142; P.A. 73-544, S. 12; P.A. 79-61, S. 1, 2; P.A. 07-173, S. 4; P.A. 16-217, S. 1.)

History: 1959 act removed reference to past activities with subversive organizations from bar to employment and from oath and revised oath; P.A. 73-544 substituted “civil preparedness” for “civil defense” throughout; P.A. 79-61 deleted from the loyalty oath all reference to present activities and affiliations having to do with subversive acts and advocacy thereof; P.A. 07-173 required that loyalty oath be administered annually, substituted “orally” for “verbally” re oath and “commissioner” for “director” re person who may empower officer to enlist volunteers, and required officers to submit roster of sworn volunteer members to department annually; P.A. 16-217 replaced “annually” with “every two years” re taking loyalty oath and made a technical change.