Kobach, Bailey threaten legal action if Biden uses 14th Amendment to avoid default
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach are pushing back against President Joe Biden’s suggestion that he could ignore the federal debt ceiling and keep paying the country’s bills to avoid an unprecedented default.
Bailey and Kobach, along with Republican attorneys general from 16 other states, signed onto the letter to Biden led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Wednesday. It blasts the president, accusing him of attempting to expand his executive powers without congressional approval.
However, while Biden has floated the idea, he has not said whether he will invoke the 14th Amendment to avert default if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling. The letter from the Republican attorneys general threatens legal action to “defend the integrity of our constitutional system.”
“The power of the purse constitutes Congress’s strongest defense against a lawless executive. By giving credence to the idea that a President can unilaterally authorize new debt for the United States, you undermine the checks and balances that have defined the rule of law for over 200 years,” the letter said.
The letter comes as Republicans and Democrats appear to be at an impasse on raising the debt ceiling and have been negotiating a deal. As part of a potential deal, Republicans have pushed for spending cuts and stricter work requirements on food assistance.
Biden has said his staff is looking into whether his administration has authority under the U.S. Constitution to ignore the debt ceiling.
The 14th amendment, adopted after the Civil War, includes a clause that states “The validity of the public debt of the United States… shall not be questioned.” Some progressives and legal scholars contend that gives Biden a path to circumvent Congress.
“I have been considering the 14th Amendment,” Biden said earlier this month. “And a man I have enormous respect for, Larry Tribe, who has advised me for a long time, thinks that it would be legitimate. But the problem is that it would have to be litigated. And in the meantime, without an extension, it would still end up in the same place.”
Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School who Biden referenced, has argued the president can ignore the debt limit, saying he would be already forced by Congress to make a difficult choice between ignoring the limit or choosing who gets paid when the country can no longer borrow money.
Bailey and Kobach’s stance on the issue diverges from Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, who previously served as Missouri Attorney General. Hawley said last week that he’d consider raising the ceiling if he were president.
“I think if I were president, I would be tempted to do that,” Hawley said. “Because I would just be like, ‘Listen, I’m not gonna let us default. So end of story. Y’all will do whatever you want to do.’ But I’m not necessarily giving him that advice. It’s against my interest.”
Star reporter Daniel Desrochers contributed to this story.
