This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

In 1860, P was admitted as an attorney and counselor before the Supreme Court. In May 1861, the State of Arkansas of which P was a citizen passed an ordinance of secession, which purported to withdraw the State from the Union, and afterward, in the same year, by another ordinance, attached herself to the so-called Confederate States, and by an act of the congress of that confederacy was received as one of its members. P followed the State, and was one of her representatives -- first in the lower house, and afterward in the senate, of the congress of that confederacy, and was a member of the Senate at the time of the surrender of the Confederate forces to the armies of the United States. In 1862, Congress passed an act prescribing an oath to be taken by every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the government of the United States, and in 1865, Congress, by a supplementary act, extended its provisions so as to embrace attorneys and counselors of the courts of the United States. In March 1865, this rule was changed by the addition of a clause requiring the administration of the oath, in conformity with the act of Congress. In July 1865, P received from the President of the United States a full pardon for all offenses committed by his participation, direct or implied, in the Rebellion. P now produces his pardon and asks permission to continue to practice as an attorney and counselor of the court without taking the oath required by the act of January 24th, 1865, and the rule of the court, which he is unable to take, by reason of the offices he held under the Confederate government.

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