How the Supreme Court can resolve the debt ceiling crisis

[hue]

http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2013/10/how-the-supreme-court-can-resolve-the-debt-ceiling-crisis/

What should happen when Congress and the President find themselves in a fiscal policy showdown resulting in a Constitutional violation? This question has risen to the fore in light of the recent political showdowns over the so-called “debt ceiling” crisis.

Some scholars have argued that there are no Constitutional options if the debt ceiling is not raised, meaning the president would be forced to choose the least unconstitutional option. Others have argued that the president has the power under Article 4 of the 14th Amendment to issue debt in contravention of the debt ceiling. Others still have argued that the president has inherent emergency powers under Article II of the Constitution to do so...

So in limited circumstances, such as those of the debt ceiling crisis, the sole remaining option would be for the federal courts, and the Supreme Court in particular, to impose taxes or borrow money to remedy the Constitutional violation.

While at first glance this may seem like an odd, or even outrageous, proposition, in fact the Supreme Court recognized the power of federal courts to do something strikingly similar over 20 years ago. In the case of Missouri v. Jenkins, the district court ordered the school district of Kansas City, Missouri to undertake certain spending to comply with Brown v. Board of Education.

Read more:

[TreasonousBastard]

1. But a case has to be brought to the Court. It can't just...

reach out and make a decision without being asked.

(Imagine the chaos if it could.)

[Mass]

2. I have always wondered why Obama did not ask for an emergency ruling on the question.

It may be because they do not know how the court would rule.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Good a reason as any...

You really don't want to go to court if you don't have to. Once the court rules that's the law and has to be obeyed and changing it is infinitely more complex.

I've been involved in lawsuits where we actually won the specific case, but the federal courts set law that was horrible and screwed us down the road.

[Laelth]

4. One can never really predict how the SCOTUS will rule.

That said, there's no standing to file a lawsuit on this issue. Generally speaking, there must be some injury sustained before someone has standing to bring a challenge to a given law that may (or may not) be constitutional. Since nobody has sustained any injury yet (because we have not defaulted on our sovereign debt), nobody has any standing to bring such a challenge before the Court.

... just my 2 cents, and I will add that I am not a Constitutional scholar.

-Laelth

[Doctor_J]

5. This court? the one that gave us CU and Heller?