Constitution Shmonstitution
By Mike Dorf I began work on my latest Verdict column on Friday, when a deal to raise the debt ceiling looked like a 50-50 proposition. It now looks much more likely, so I've retooled the column as something of an evergreen addressing the following question: What should the President do when faced with only unconstitutional options? It's a bit of a follow-up to, and expansion of, my earlier blog post on the topic. I explain how our constitutional law stubbornly refuses to acknowledge a substantial role for balancing, which is how the issue would be addressed in most other constitutional democracies. Developing criteria for deciding among unconstitutional options presents one interesting possibility that should pretty clearly be rejected: Namely, doing whatever the heck you want. Let me explain. In the example I discuss in the column, I assume that the President has three unconstitutional options: 1) Ignore the debt ceiling and borrow in violation of sepa...