This paper presents a series of laboratory tests of the California bearing ratio (CBR) for investigating the bearing capacity and effects of the soaking process on the strength reduction of reinforced clay. Specimens were prepared using varying numbers of reinforcement layers, compaction energies, and soaking conditions. The results revealed that the CBR value significantly increased for specimens reinforced with nonwoven geotextile layers under soaked and unsoaked conditions. In particular, under the unsoaked condition, the maximum CBR of the reinforced clay specimens was about 1.3 ~ 1.5 times more than that of unreinforced clay. After soaking, the reinforcement inclusion improved the maximum CBR of the reinforced specimens by 4.3 ~ 8.6 times. The soaking process induced a drastic decrease in the CBR value of unreinforced clay by up to 91.7%, which minimized to less than 68.8% when nonwoven reinforcement was used. The analysis of the CBR decrease as a result of soaking and swelling demonstrated that the CBR of unreinforced specimens decreased by approximately 80% under soaking without a change in density and could be further decreased to less than 50% using reinforcement with a nonwoven geotextile.