As a West Point cadet, Roy S. Moore, the former Alabama judge who won the Republican senatorial primary last month, swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. He took such an oath when, after graduation, he was in the US Army. If he is elected senator by the voters of Alabama, before he can take his seat in the Senate, he will be required by the Constitution to be “bound by oath or affirmation’’ to support the Constitution, and by law to “solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States 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 . . . so help me God.’’

As reported in the Globe’s Sept. 27 edition (“Moore beats Trump-endorsed incumbent in Ala.,’’ Page A6), “Moore made the supremacy of a Christian God over the US Constitution the central rallying point of his campaign.’’ Taking him at his word, and judging him by his past actions, it is clear that he will not and cannot take the required oath “without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.’’

James B. Lampert

Duxbury