Emoluments, Hillary, and the President-Elect

Do you know what an emolument is? I thought it was something that proper medication could clear up. It is one of those words your brain automatically skips when you read the Constitution. Apparently President-Elect Barack Obama must have skipped that whole section of the Constitution that contains the part about Emoluments. "Why, that can't be Greg! He is a Constitutional law scholar" Heaven help us if this is the way he will treat the Constitution during his time in office - George Bush fell in love with the Executive Order and now the office of the President will never be the same. Back to emoluments, President-Elect Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

An emolument is compensation, payment if you will, for work done. Here is what the Constitution (Article 1, Section 6, clause 2) 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.

What this means is that if a pay increase is authorized by Congress or executive order for an office or position, any of the members of Congress are not eligible to hold that particular office. In January 2008 the office of Secretary of State was given a cost of living increase by executive order. Guess who was serving in the Senate at that time? Yup, the Honorable Senator from the State of New York, Hillary Clinton. She is therefore not eligible to be the Secretary of State. Bill is eligible, knock on wood.

But not Hillary.

This has happened before, with Hillary's husband Bill when he nominated Senator Lloyd Bentsen to be his Secretary of Treasury. Senator Bentsen was confirmed and we know what President Clinton thought about obeying laws and ignoring the Constitution. So did Presidents Carter and Nixon. Just an inconvenience. And now the President-Elect, since he is a Constitutional law scholar so he must know this, is ignoring this minor detail of going against the Constitution. If he chooses to ignore the Constitution and this law, which other ones will he ignore? Change we can believe in - but certainly don't want. Sounds like a lot of continuity to me. Read some other articles about it here and here.