Clinton as Secretary of State; Unconstitutional
Yep. Unconstitutional.
According to the Ineligibility Clause of the United States Constitution, no member of Congress can be appointed to an office that has benefited from a salary increase during the time that Senator or Representative served in Congress. A January 2008 Executive Order signed by President Bush during Hillary Clinton’s current Senate term increased the salary for Secretary of State, thereby rendering Senator Clinton ineligible for the position.
Specifically, Article I, section 6 of the U.S. Constitution provides “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.” The provision is seen by most as designed by our Founding Fathers to protect against corruption.
Ouch. How much you want to bet that they’ll go around that somehow. The very same post by the Judicial watch talks about something called the “Saxbe fix”
The Nixon administration managed to force legislation through Congress to reduce the salary for the position of Attorney General to the level that existed prior to Senator Saxbe’s appointment. This scheme, known thereafter as “The Saxbe Fix,” was also used to allow Senator Lloyd Bentsen to assume the position of Treasury Secretary under President Clinton.
And her husband used it, so you know she knows that it is there and usable. So, I’m sure that, barring any unforeseen problems, we’ll see Mrs. Clinton become Secretary of State. Constitution be damned.
I’m sure that Hillary did not have the office in mind for herself when she voted on the raise for the position. She had much loftier goals. Nevertheless, Obama is a Constitutional law professor. You’d think he’d want to uphold the thing rather than find ways around it. Alas, more change we can believe in.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Since Obama views the Constitution as a fundamentally flawed document… I am sure this is just one of those areas we will “work around.”