Most people (myself included) argue that because the transposition did not change meaning, just as adding "so help me God" does not change meaning, the Constitution was not violated by the oath at the Inauguration. But Paulsen argues that it did violate the Constitution (because the focus is purely on the text and the way the oath always is inconsistent with the text); in fact, every President since Washington has, formally, violated the Constitution by adding "SHMG" and their names. But, because meaning has not changed, the unconstitutionality (the "constitutional error," if you will) is harmless; it does not matter and does not require any remedy.
So in asking whether transposing "faithfully" renders the oath invalid, the question is not whether the oath was unconstitutional; it was unconstitutional, as has every other oath since 1789. The question is whether the unconstitutionality matters.
IMHO a lot less harm done at the oath taking by presidents than afterwards.
But this is leading to something - an organization called the So Help Me God project, which is also known as Operation Thank You.
Our latest project is Operation Thank You, a massive effort to collect and send 1 million military thank you cards and get well cards to our troops!
The site offers resources to military members and families and an online store which carries specialty bibles for armed forces members, police and firemen, DVD's, dogtags, and grief packets, among other items. You can visit them here.
{Their logo is shown at left, which shows a silhouette of a person in blue taking an oath and an American flag in the background. On top are the words So Help Me God Project and Beneath SoHelpMeGod.Org on a white background.}
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