Jonathan Turley Fact Checks AOC, Fetterman, Other Dems on 14th Amendment

Bonnie Cash/Pool via AP

I wrote earlier about how we have folks on the left like Fatima Mohammed, the CUNY Law School commencement speaker who advocated for revolution.

How do they get there? Mohammed explains that the law itself — that thing that is supposed to be the underpinning of our society — is a “manifestation of White Supremacy.”

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All that has gone before must be upended, some argue. All order, law, and even reality must be thrown under. That’s why we’re seeing cultural chaos, as well as political chaos. Right is wrong, wrong is right. They can’t even define what a woman is because there is no longer any objective reality, only the narrative. We’ve seen it in other countries before. We’re experiencing it now in this country. And the Democrats are the chief purveyors of this ideology. Anything that stands in the way of their power, from the Supreme Court to the law itself, must be attacked, demonized, or changed to serve their ends.

Members of Congress will even undercut the Consitution and throw Congressional power (when it’s controlled by Republicans) under the bus as we’ve seen in the debt limit debate. Some of them want to invoke the 14th Amendment as an excuse for Joe Biden to be able to bypass Congress. But as my colleague Joe Cunningham has observed, nothing in that public debt provision suggests that you can shoot down the express power that the Constitution gives to Congress.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

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Even Barack Obama said that his legal counsel thought it wasn’t going to fly.

No kidding.

As George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley points out, that hasn’t stopped Democrats from saying monumentally bad things when it comes to the issue.

Turley observed, “AOC continues to show a striking unfamiliarity with the Constitution in declaring ‘I still believe, first of all, that we should start to implement [the 14th Amendment] anyway because we should eliminate the debt limit in the United States.'”

“Striking unfamiliarity” is wonderfully cutting and on target. He also explained how she also seemed willing to toss out the Supreme Court because she didn’t think it benefitted them enough, “AOC previously questioned the need for a Supreme Court: ‘How much does the current structure benefit us? And I don’t think it does.'”

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Turley also nailed Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) for his cluelessness regarding the 14th Amendment.

Listen to what Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said on Sunday. She not only wanted the 14th Amendment invoked in this present situation, but she wants the raising of the debt ceiling and control by Congress of the spending eliminated. She’s saying that whoever is the chief executive should just have the ability to spend as much as they want and Congress should just have to pay it, with no ability to cut it off. It’s the very antithesis of what was envisioned by the Constitution, with its carefully constructed system of checks and balances.

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“[Raising the debt ceiling] should be automatic,” she argued. “We should just make it a rule like the 14th Amendment of the Constitution says.”

Turley observed how Biden has acted unilaterally in the past as with the rent moratorium and student debt forgiveness. But the stunning thing with this argument from members of Congress is that they are essentially nullifying themselves in addition to ignoring the Constitution.

President Biden has previously taken actions that he admitted were unlikely to “pass constitutional muster” but believed “at a minimum, by the time it gets litigated, it will probably give some additional time while we’re getting [billions] out to people.” Yes, he said that publicly.

Biden is not the first president to disregard legislative authority. But these members of the legislative branch are beseeching their leader to ignore them and their constitutional authority. Indeed, the most important power given to Congress under Article I is the “power of the purse.” It was the ultimate control over government. Whatever entanglements or commitments a president may seek, he must ultimately get the Congress to go along.

What’s the point in all this in addition to contributing to their power? To be able to spend without check. If we aren’t already up a creek without a paddle when it comes to debt, imagine where we’d be if we were so stupid as to go along with them on this. But this is where they want to go, as Schakowsky said, which would not only gut the Constitution but further destroy the country.

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