Reichman said that he did not fault campus administrators for the firing and that they were put in an awkward position because of the constitutional requirement that every employee sign the oath.
"It's an anachronism," he said. "It's left over from the McCarthy era. I would like to see the Legislature repeal this -- although on the priority list of civil liberties issues in the country, there are a lot of things that are a lot higher."
Kearney-Brown, who began teaching high school math in 1994, said she had been allowed to add the word "nonviolently" when she signed the oath on earlier occasions.
She was hired at Cal State East Bay in January to teach remedial math and received a stellar job evaluation before her dismissal.
After Kearney-Brown added "nonviolently" to the oath, university officials sternly told her that it was "impermissible" to modify the pledge.
Kearney-Brown accused the university of turning the matter of the oath into a "meaningless formality."
"It bothers me that no one took me or my religious concerns seriously," she wrote in a letter to CSU legal counsel Eunice Chan.
The university invited Kearney-Brown to write an explanation of her views that could be included in her personnel file -- as long as her statement did not negate the oath.
Instead, she asked the university to give her a statement declaring that signing the oath would not require her to take up arms.
"I do support the Constitution," she said before she was rehired. "I value and honor it. To be honest, I feel like I am defending it by doing this."
After Kearney-Brown filed the grievance over her firing, the university consulted with the attorney general's office and produced the kind of document she had requested.
"You should know that signing the oath does not carry with it any obligation or requirement that public employees bear arms or otherwise engage in violence," read the unsigned statement. "This has been confirmed by both the United States Supreme Court . . . and the California attorney general's office."
With that document stapled to the oath, Kearney-Brown signed it.
Clara Potes-Fellow, a spokeswoman for the 23-campus Cal State system, said it had not changed its position by rehiring Kearney-Brown and the university was pleased by the final result.
"This is the best of all outcomes," Potes-Fellow said. "We are delighted that finally this was resolved."
