Idea? By Executive Order declare the 'debt limit' unconstitutional...

[Rosco T.]

.. that it provided a means to violate the 14th amendment.

Let the courts sort it out.

[flamingdem]

1. I keep asking, why should Obama put himself in the firing line

but all sides seem to think he can solve things magically, even when he's a constitutional scholar and has principles.

[surrealAmerican]

2. Executive order can not declare anything unconstitutional.

Only the Supreme Court can do that, and they won't.

[JVS]

3. If minting a coin (which is obviously within his power) is being rejected on the grounds of ...

fearing lawsuits, then invoking a questionable claim of authority to abolish the debt limit fails the same test.

[Stallion]

4. Nothing is Unconstitutional Until a Court Rules it is

He doesn't have to declare the Act unconstitutional-he just has to direct that the Treasury pay the government's debts under the 14th Amendment. Then a party with standing can file suit against the Treasury secretary/President probably seeking injunctive/declaratory relief that the payments under the 14th amendment are unconstitutional. Obama/Treasury would defend by affirmative defense that his actions were justified because the Debt Limit Act was unconstitutional because of the irreconcilable conflict with the 14th Amendment. Meanwhile debts are paid until ruling by the Federal Courts

[BarackTheVote]

16. Thanks for this

I made an OP earlier and this is exactly the answer I was looking for!

[Posteritatis]

5. A better EO would be telling drones to launch civics textbooks at people until these posts stop. nt

[notadmblnd]

6. Wouldn't the Supreme Court have to do it?

[Savannahmann]

7. And while the Courts are

T-Bills would be slightly more popular than hemorrhoids on the international market. Those holding them now would start asking politely for the US to redeem them. The international markets would start to shift to a more stable monetary unit, and billions of dollars would start to come home worth pennies instead of dollars.

End result is the same, it just takes a couple months instead of a week. Then if the Courts ruled that the President did not have the authority, assuming that President Obama is still in the White House, then we have a disaster of a constitutional question don't we? That is assuming that the Tea Party didn't win both houses in 2014 as the insane predictions of an imperial presidency appear to be coming true.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. So he declares the debt ceiling unconstitutional

Now he has the judiciary pissed off at him for usurping their power.

Then that declaration means what, exactly? He can't incur more debt because only congress can authorize new spending. If he directs Treasury to issue unauthorized bonds then he steps on Congress AND crashes the bond market worse than any default over political wrangling. Those bonds would be worthless because Congress cannot be forced to honor them and you can assume they wouldn't just to crush the precedent. You'd be better off investing in Dutch tulips.

[Stallion]

9. List of 158 Congressional Acts Ruled Unconstitutional by Supreme Court

since Marbury v Madison -the role of the Supreme Court has been to decide these types of conflicts between federal law on the US Constitution. Few if any created a Constitutional crisis. Impeachment would be DOA in the Senate

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CONAN-2002/pdf/GPO-CONAN-2002-10.pdf

[Nuclear Unicorn]

14. Honestly, I'm not sure how that relates to my post. Could you expound, please?

[Posteritatis]

10. He couldn't EO something as unconstitutional any more than he could EO an election result.

The question's moot in the first place because the very idea is absurd to anyone with more than the most casual awareness of how the American polity's designed in the first place.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. I agree but I wanted to offer whys and wherefores as well.

It seems more polite than declaring something absurd without explanation.

[Chan790]

11. If you're going to propose a bad idea...

at least propose a novel interestingly-bad idea like invocation of the Insurrection Act.

If you squint hard enough and lie to yourself, the current situation could barely be construed as meeting the authorization-test of 10 U.S.C. § 332-333.

[Codeine]

12. Since when is ruling on Constitutionality a function of the Executive? nt

[Rosco T.]

13. Provide the documentation where an executive order can not declare a law null and void...

will you? Show me where it says it CANNOT declare a law null and void.. or unconstitutional is you please.

[backscatter712]

17. Not quite...

If I were POTUS, I'd declare the shutdown and debt limit crisis to be a danger to national security, and declare as Commander in Chief that I'm overriding the debt limit and ordering the Executive Branch to operate as though they were on last year's budget.

The teabaggers would impeach, but my defense would be that I acted to protect national security, so I'd doubt that the fuckers could get a 2/3 vote in the Senate to convict.