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I realize that this might come as a shock to RBC readers, but sometimes Congress passes statutes that conflict with each other. What do courts do when faced these problems? And what does it have to do with the debt ceiling? Well, consider this problem. Congress passes a debt ceiling bill. Then it passes a [...]
Archive for the ‘Constitutional politics’ Category
July 6th, 2011
July 5th, 2011
When Michael McConnell speaks on constitutional law, people listen, as well they should. And he says that the argument that the President can unilaterally issue new debt is “bunk,” for basically the same reason that Andrew Grossman said a few days ago: only Congress has that power. That in and of itself is arguable, but [...]
July 4th, 2011
Category: Constitutional politics, Law Notes
Calls are growing from President Obama simply to tell Congress to stuff it when it comes to the debt ceiling. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment says quite clearly that the “Public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned.” At the very least that would mean that [...]
April 4th, 2011
I disagree with both my fellow bloggers. The root cause of deficits isn’t either national character or Republican perfidy. It’s the logic of social choice in a system of separated powers.
February 25th, 2011
How capital smashes labor, in two sentences.
February 20th, 2011
Category: Constitutional politics, Watching Conservatives
If the Republicans force a shut-down of the Federal government, that won’t include shutting down the army, as the Constitution clearly provides it should.
February 4th, 2011
Category: Constitutional politics
A reduction ad absurdum for the Tenthers and the GOP politicians who pretend to Tentherism.
January 31st, 2011
The Supreme Court issued a new opinion today making Commerce Clause jurisprudence exceptionally clear. We now have a straightforward, simple test.
January 3rd, 2011
Her hatred of the Gore Vidal novel Burr reveals the Tea Party as a deeply anti-constitutional movement.
September 27th, 2010
Category: Constitutional politics, Law Notes
According to Michael Klarman of Harvard. I´m linking to this because (a) it´s a great piece of iconoclasm (b) Balkinization has turned off comments on the post. So open thread. Play nice.