Judge postpones showdown over 14th Amendment debt powers

[Tennessee Hillbilly]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by MustLoveBeagles (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Politico

A federal judge in Boston has postponed a hearing scheduled for this week in a lawsuit that a government workers’ union filed in a bid to confirm President Joe Biden’s authority to ignore the debt limit by invoking the 14th Amendment.

The judge’s action followed an unusual Memorial Day holiday filing by the Justice Department that appeared aimed at trying to avoid staking out a clear position on the main legal question in the case: whether the 14th Amendment’s language about the national debt authorizes or even requires the president to keep paying U.S. government financial obligations in the face of a statute that seeks to set a limit on the total debt outstanding.


Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/29/doj-biden-14th-amendment-debt-limit-lawsuit-00099163

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Could this be a case that eventually reaches the Supreme Court and finally determines whether a president can use the 14th Amendment to avoid having to deal with the debt limit?

[bucolic_frolic]

1. No sense in litigating what hasn't happened. Only break glass in case of emergency.

To rule on it now is to waste the option.

[FBaggins]

2. No - this couldn't be that case

Nor is it likely that an actual case would go that way before this court.

Regardless - federal courts can’t issue advisory opinions (and the union wouldn’t have standing if they did)

[cstanleytech]

3. I predict the judge will toss the hot potato since Biden has not actually done it yet.

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. Locking now

Hearing was postponed scheduling announcement. No final disposition/major news here.