An email discussion began among some of my friends last week related to this post from The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder:
Is Clinton barred from State job?
25 Nov 2008 04:24 pm
Pete Williams of NBC raised the question on MSNBC this afternoon: Is Hillary Clinton barred by the Constitution from accepting the post of secretary of state?
Article One, Section Six of the U.S. Constitution says:
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 increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.
Essentially, you cannot take a job if the salary was increased during your current congressional term. And the salary for cabinet officials has gone up in the past year. Even if it is lowered back down, constitutional scholars say that may not be enough to fix the problem.
The question is whether this would be an issue at confirmation – if Clinton is nominated to the post – and who would raise it. Senators traditionally grant their colleagues some deference and it could be considered politics at its worst if Republicans try to block her nomination with this argument. But senators may be loathe to vote for something scholars tell them is unconstitutional.
That being said, this development may make Obama, or Clinton, think twice about the appointment.
-Matthew Berger
**END QUOTE**
Friends of mine who were on the email chain said they were surprised this issue hadn’t come up before. One person responded, saying, “It has, as I have learned from some further reading. There have obviously been a number of sitting members of Congress who assumed cabinet positions before their terms in Congress were up. The mechanism Congress has used to get around it is to cut the pay of the cabinet post to the level it was at before the pay raise(s) enacted while the nominee was in Congress. It’s actually called the ‘Saxbe’ maneuver.”
Another friend responded, asking, “Can’t she just refuse the income from the job, or take $1 a year?”
Finally, the riddle was solved once and for all when another person on the email said: “Won’t be a problem, owing to the Saxbe solution. It is just being announced that Gates is staying on.”
The Buck Naked Politics got in on the action, admitting that it didn’t know the answer, but used other sources in its post to reach an answer and admitted that it hopes Hillary stays in the Senate to continue on the work she has started.
The Smarmy Liberal piped up with its two cents, but it takes care to note our loose interpretations of the Constitution.
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