PolitiFact - Could President Biden use the 14th Amendment to head off a debt default?

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How could a clause in the 14th Amendment, enacted to guarantee citizenship after the Civil War, shape the battle over the debt limit? The White House is considering invoking the amendment to end the standoff, but courts have rarely ruled on the provision.

, President Joe Biden cracked open the door to deploying an untested legal strategy involving the amendment best known for granting citizenship to enslaved Black Americans following the Civil War.and proposed spending cuts from Republicans that he considers untenable. Although President Barack Obama considered using the 14th Amendment during a debt ceiling standoff in 2011, he decided against it, questioning the move’s ability to withstand legal challenge.

In court, the government could argue that it faces two irreconcilable laws: the debt limit, and the requirement to pay the bills it owes. It could point to the 14th Amendment and say that the concept of a debt limit runs afoul of the Constitution.reporters following a meeting with congressional leaders. He said a legal scholar he trusts, Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard University, has recently come out in favor of using the amendment to head off default.

Biden added that internal discussions have been underway, but he acknowledged that the legality of such a move"would have to be litigated," making the tactic’s usefulness dependent on the courts’ agreement.at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Japan, saying it was"legally questionable whether that’s a viable strategy."

The debt limit is a statutory dollar figure that constrains how much debt the federal government can carry at a given time to pay for its operations. The debt ceiling now in effect is projected to be

 

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