Article I, section 6, 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…the Emolument whereof shall have been encreased during the such time.”
The salary of Secretary of State was increased while Secretary Clinton was a U.S. Senator. A foreign service officer, David Rodearmel, filed a lawsuit, claiming that because Clinton had been a Senator when the salary of the Secretary of State was increased, therefore she is not eligible to be Secretary of State. Rodearmel lost in the lower court and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case. The government’s response had been due on February 4, but the goverment asked the Court for three separate extensions of time in which to respond. The government’s response is finally filed. The brief says that Rodearmel doesn’t have standing, but that even if he did, the provision is ambiguous. The government says that because Congress lowered the salary of Secretary of State just as Clinton was sworn in, there is no constitutional barrier to her being Secretary of State. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Exactly who has *standing* to enforce the parts of a WRITTEN CONSTITUTION ???
NOT the mere People ???
NOT the mere States ???
ONLY some party hacks in high offices ???
Is the U.S.A. Constitution a DEAD document from the ancient past ???
This is like the issue of Barack Obama who at birth was a Subject of the Sultan of Zanzibar, because his paternal grandfather was naturalized in Zanzibar in 1919. The courts do want to deal with the alien Barack
Obama II either.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American Independent Party, affliated with the America’s Independent Party since June 27, 2008