US President Biden was giving his take on the debt ceiling talks:
Biden also added that he would be open to considering using the Fourteenth Amendment. explainer:
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted in 1868, and it contains several important provisions regarding citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law.
okay then. But wait there’s more.
Now, in the context of the debt ceiling, one of the specific provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment has been the subject of debate and controversy. This is Section 4 of the Amendment, which states:
-
“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and emoluments for services in suppressing an insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
Some legal scholars have argued that this provision gives the president the power to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling, without the need for congressional approval, in order to prevent default on the national debt. The argument goes that since the Fourteenth Amendment expressly forbids questioning the validity of the public debt, any refusal to raise the debt ceiling would be unconstitutional. However, this interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment is not universally accepted, and has never been tested in the courts.
In practice, the debt ceiling has always been raised through legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. Ultimately, the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment can be used to bypass the debt ceiling is still a matter of legal and constitutional debate.
–