The Constitution, General Austin, and the Seven-Year Rule
With President-elect Biden announcing retired general Lloyd Austin as his pick for Defense Secretary, 10 U.S.C. 113(a) is back in the news. It provides: A person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense within seven years after relief from active duty as a...
Can the Vice President Break a Tie on Appointments?
In the Boston Globe, Laurence Tribe (Harvard) makes an originalist case that the Vice President cannot break ties on appointments votes. It’s an interesting issue but I am not persuaded. He begins: While the vice president has the power to cast a tiebreaking...
Senator Harris Is a Natural Born Citizen
This post consolidates and extends earlier comments I (here and here) and others (especially Eugene Volokh here) have made about Senator Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be President (and derivatively her eligibility to be Vice President). To put the conclusion up...