A caller to Brian Sussman’s show tonight had an interesting point. Article I, Section 6 of the constitution says, in part:
No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time[.]
Since the Secretary of State was given a raise (the emolument having been encreased) during Hillary’s term in the Senate, and since she still is a Senator, that means she cannot be appointed to that position. The Founders specifically did not want the corruption that would come from voting to create or give a raise to a nice job and then taking it.
For an Obama administration, which doesn’t understand the role of judges and will no doubt be quite content to pretend that certain Amendments are devoid of meaning, this will surely be but a speed bump. But the language seems clear to me.
Update:
Apparently Volokh thinks the wording is “ambiguous”, but cites two law professors who agree with me. Mickey Kaus has the rim shot:
Leave a Reply