Is Evita eligible for SecState
An interesting constitutional question is baing raised over the probable appointment of Hillary as Sec 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.
Emoluments being salary. The pay raise for Sec State was raised during her current term in the Senate.
The past remedy for this has been to lower the pay for the position to what it was and in almost all cases there was no issue and Congress has not objected . However when Congress gets in a mood to be contrary they have raised the issue. In 1973, at the height of Watergate, President Nixon nominated William Saxbe to be Attorney General and the issue was raised because Saxbe was in the Senate when the Attorney General’s pay was raised.
In that instance, Congress lowered the pay for the AG, allowing the appointment to proceed. Democratic Senators complained, however, and 10 senators actually voted against it on constitutional grounds. At the time, Sen. Robert KKK Byrd said it was clearly unconstitutional saying we should not delude the American people into thinking a way can be found around the constitutional obstacle.The Saxbe fix ;as it came to be called ,set the compensation to the point before its raise, which allowed Congress to ignore the Constitutional bar .
But Byrd's point was that the fix to the problem bypassed the constitutional issue that the language of the section clearly is absolute No Senator or Representative...
No doubt Congress will approve Evita's appointment .But if she does something that is objectable to someone with standing ;it is possible that her eligibility would be challenged outside of Congress for SCOTUS to decide.