[{"command":"add_css","data":[{"rel":"stylesheet","media":"all","href":"\/sites\/default\/files\/css\/css_veuEhhb1658wti0_ZAig66JOyixENU-N9zhjLQSLfOQ.css?delta=0\u0026language=en\u0026theme=heritage_theme\u0026include=eJwrTi1LzdNPzkksLq7Uy8tPSQUAPMsGtA"}]},{"command":"invoke","selector":null,"method":"openEssay","args":["10000027","\n\n\u003Carticle about=\u0022\/constitution\/articles\/1\/essays\/28\/sinecure-clause\u0022 class=\u0022node node--type-constitution-essay node--promoted node--view-mode-embedded clearfix\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Ch1 class=\u0022title\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ESinecure Clause\u003C\/span\u003E\n\u003C\/h1\u003E\n\n      \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-location\u0022\u003E\n      Article I, Section 6, Clause 2\n    \u003C\/div\u003E\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-context\u0022\u003E\n      \n            \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENo 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 encreased during such time....\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n      \n    \u003C\/div\u003E\n      \n  \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-body\u0022\u003E\n    \n            \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDetermined to avoid corruption and self-dealing in the legislative process, the Framers kept all appointive powers out of the hands of Congress (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2). But corruption could come not only from self-dealing but also from the blandishments of the executive. Consequently, in order to prevent a repetition of the British Crown\u2019s practice of \u201cbuying\u201d support by creating offices and sinecures to give to members of Parliament, Robert Yates proposed to the Constitutional Convention a ban on Members of Congress from \u201cany office established by a particular State, or under the authority of the U. States\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009during the term of service, and under the national Government for the space of one year after its expiration.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAll the delegates in Philadelphia agreed that no Member of Congress should serve in an appointive position while he was sitting, but Nathaniel Gorham, James Wilson, and Alexander Hamilton wanted no bar at all once a person was no longer in Congress. Hamilton argued that since passion drives all men, the executive should be able to satisfy the desires of the better\u0026nbsp;qualified men by inducing them to serve in appointive offices.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EJames Madison proposed a solution that sought to reconcile the divergent concerns of the Framers: \u201cthat no office ought to be open to a member, which may be created or augmented while he is in the legislature.\u201d For some time, the delegates debated whether this idea was too restrictive or not restrictive enough. Madison responded that \u201cthe unnecessary creation of offices, and increase of salaries, were the evils most experienced, \u0026amp; that if the door was shut agst. them, it might properly be left open for the appointt. of members to other offices as an encouragmt. to the Legislative service.\u201d Eventually, the delegates accepted Madison\u2019s view, but they deleted the prohibition from holding state office (the state might need the Member\u2019s services) and the one-year bar after leaving office (it was not long enough to be of any significant effect). They also limited the bar to \u201ccivil\u201d offices so that the military could have the service of all when the country was in danger.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe result was the Sinecure Clause, also known as the Emoluments Clause or the Ineligibility Clause. As adopted, the relatively limited bar of this clause reinforces the separation of powers and the federal structure of the union. Of the separation of powers, Madison famously wrote in \u003Ci\u003EThe Federalist\u003C\/i\u003E No. 51: \u201cAmbition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.\u201d The clause puts an obstacle to the President\u2019s ability to shift a Member of Congress\u2019s ambition from the legislative to the executive. Of the federal structure of the union, Madison had warned of \u201cthe unnecessary creation of offices\u201d\u2014obviously beyond what was appropriate for the central government\u2014that could occur if the clause were not adopted.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe clause establishes a number of formal requirements: (1) It applies to those Members who have actually taken their seats, not to those who were elected but not yet sworn in. (2) \u201cAppointed\u201d means at the moment of nomination for civil office, not at the time of approval. (3) The bar cannot be evaded by resignation from Congress. In a written opinion of Attorney General Benjamin Brewster in 1882, the clause applies for the term \u201cfor which he was elected,\u201d not the time during which the Member actually holds office. (4) \u201cCivil office\u201d is one in which the appointee exercises an authoritative role. It does not apply to temporary, honorific, advisory, or occasional postings. \u003Ci\u003EUnited States v.\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003EHartwell \u003C\/i\u003E(1868). (5) \u201cEmoluments\u201d means more\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Ethan salary, \u003Ci\u003EMcLean v. United States\u003C\/i\u003E (1912), but it is unclear how much more. In 1937, the Senate approved the appointment of Hugo L. Black to the Supreme Court even though Congress had passed legislation significantly augmenting the pensions of Supreme Court justices during the Senate term in which Black served. Later, under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and James Earl Carter, the Department of Justice opined that it did not matter when Congress passed legislation increasing the salary for an office, so long as the former Member of Congress was nominated before the salary increase went into effect. The courts dismissed suits contesting the appointments of Justice Black and Judge Abner Mikva on lack of standing grounds. \u003Ci\u003EEx parte Levitt\u003C\/i\u003E (1937); \u003Ci\u003EMcClure v. Carter \u003C\/i\u003E(1981).\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn his \u003Ci\u003ECommentaries on the Constitution of\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003Ethe United States \u003C\/i\u003E(1833), Justice Joseph Story, even\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Ein his panegyric, was hesitant about the clause: \u201cIt has been deemed by one commentator an admirable provision against venality, though not perhaps sufficiently guarded to prevent evasion.\u201d For well over a century, Presidents and their attorneys general had rigorously followed the formal requirements of the clause. In 1973, however, despite the evident textual commands of the Sinecure Clause, Congress and the executive devised an effective stratagem to avoid its limitations. Termed the \u201cSaxbe fix,\u201d it copied an idea invented during the Taft administration. President Richard M. Nixon appointed Senator William Saxbe to be Attorney General even though Saxbe had been a Senator when Congress voted to raise the Attorney General\u2019s salary from $35,000 to $60,000. Under an opinion from acting Attorney General Robert H. Bork, Congress \u201cfixed\u201d the violation of the clause by returning the salary to the $35,000 level.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EPresidents Gerald R. Ford (appointing Representative Robert Casey of Texas to the Federal Maritime Commission), Carter (appointing Senator Edmund Muskie as Secretary of State), and William Jefferson Clinton (appointing Senator Lloyd Bentsen as Secretary of the Treasury) went further and utilized \u201ctemporary Saxbe fixes,\u201d persuading Congress to reduce the salary of a position to which a Member had been appointed but only until the date when the Member\u2019s term would have ended. Only under Attorney General Edwin Meese\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIII did the Department of Justice eschew this end run around the formal requirements of the Sinecure Clause. In 1987, the Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion that Senator Orrin Hatch would be ineligible for nomination to the Supreme Court because Congress had raised the salaries for Associate Justices during Hatch\u2019s term. President Ronald Reagan chose to nominate Judge Robert H. Bork, whom the Senate did not approve. Under President Clinton, however, the Office of Legal Counsel declared that the Ineligibility Clause of the Constitution would not bar the appointment of Representative Bill Richardson to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations or of Senator William Cohen to serve as Secretary of Defense.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2008, Congress once again utilized the \u201cSaxbe fix.\u201d It passed the Secretary of State Emoluments Act retroactively reducing the salary of the Secretary of State so that Hillary Clinton, who had voted for the increase while Senator, could take the cabinet post. At the same time, however, Congress, perhaps aware of the doubtful constitutionality of the practice, provided that, \u201cAny person aggrieved by an action of the Secretary of State may bring a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to contest the constitutionality of the appointment and continuance in office of the Secretary of State on the ground that such appointment and continuance in office is in violation of article I, section 6, clause 2, of the Constitution.\u201d Act of Dec. 19, 2008, \u00a7 1(b)(1)\u20132). Apparently in response, the Office of Legal Counsel affirmatively declared that salary rollback was a valid constitutional means of complying with the Sinecure (\u201cIneligibility\u201d) Clause.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn fact, a foreign service officer did bring suit alleging that Hillary Clinton\u2019s appointment violated the Constitution. The district court dismissed the suit on standing grounds, holding that the foreign service officer failed to allege any action by the Secretary of State that \u201caggrieved\u201d him. \u003Ci\u003ERodearmel v. Clinton\u003C\/i\u003E (2009).\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn reflecting on the Sinecure Clause, Justice Story had also written, \u201cIt has sometimes been matter of regret, that the disqualification had not been made co-extensive with the supposed mischief; and thus to have for ever excluded members from the possession of offices created, or rendered more lucrative, by themselves.\u201d He was writing at a time when many saw the Sinecure Clause as too weak. Before 1850, over thirty amendments had been proposed to strengthen the prohibition. Yet Justice Story was unsure of the merit of the proposals: \u201cPerhaps there is quite as much wisdom in leaving the provision, where it now is.\u201d The upshot is that fidelity to the Constitution by any of the branches of the government remains as much a function of internal commitment as it is of external constraint.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n      \n  \u003C\/div\u003E\n\n      \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-author\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-author--media\u0022\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-author--photo\u0022 style=\u0022background-image: url(\/sites\/default\/files\/David_Forte.jpg)\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n            \u003C\/div\u003E\n      \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-author--info\u0022\u003E\n              \u003Ch4 class=\u0022con-essay-author--name\u0022\u003E\n                      \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/facultyprofile.csuohio.edu\/csufacultyprofile\/detail.cfm?FacultyID=D_FORTE\u0022\u003EDavid F. Forte\u003C\/a\u003E\n                  \u003C\/h4\u003E\n                  \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-author--job\u0022\u003E\n         Professor, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law\n      \u003C\/div\u003E\n            \u003C\/div\u003E\n    \u003C\/div\u003E\n\n    \u003Cdiv class=\u0022con-essay-tabs\u0022\u003E\n      \u003Cul data-tabs class=\u0022tabs\u0022\u003E\n        \u003Cli class=\u0022button-more thirds\u0022\u003E\u003Ca data-tab href=\u0022#node-10000027-taba\u0022\u003EFurther Reading\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n        \u003Cli class=\u0022button-more thirds\u0022\u003E\u003Ca data-tab href=\u0022#node-10000027-tabb\u0022\u003ECase Law\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n        \u003Cli class=\u0022button-more thirds\u0022\u003E\u003Ca data-tab href=\u0022#node-10000027-tabc\u0022\u003ERelated Essays\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\n      \u003C\/ul\u003E\n\n      \u003Cdiv data-tabs-content\u003E\n        \u003Cdiv data-tabs-pane class=\u0022tabs-pane\u0022 id=\u0022node-10000027-taba\u0022\u003E\n          \n      \u003Cdiv\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAppointment to Civil Office, 17 Op. Att\u2019y Gen. 365 (1882)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAppointment of Senator as Federal Judge, 33 Op. Att\u2019y Gen. 88 (1922)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMember of Congress\u2013Appointment to Civil Office Prior to Pay Increase, 42 Op. Att\u2019y Gen. 381 (1969)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp style=\u0022margin-left:16px; text-align:justify; text-indent:-11.95pt\u0022\u003EMemorandum for Attorney General Eric Holder from David Barron, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, \u003Ci\u003EValidity of Statutory Rollbacks as\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003Ea Means of Complying with the Ineligibility Clause \u003C\/i\u003E(May 20, 2009), http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/olc\/2009\/ ineligibility-clause.pdf\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp style=\u0022margin-left:16px; text-align:justify; text-indent:-11.95pt\u0022\u003EMemorandum Opinion for the General Counsel, Immigration and Naturalization Service, 3 Op. O.L.C. 286 (1979)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ci\u003ENote: The Ineligibility Clause\u2019s Lost History: Presidential Patronage and Congress, 1787\u20131850\u003C\/i\u003E, 123\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003EHARV. L.\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003EREV. 1727 (2010)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp style=\u0022margin-left:16px; text-align:justify; text-indent:-11.95pt\u0022\u003EJohn F. O\u2019Connor, \u003Ci\u003EThe Emoluments Clause: An Anti\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003EFederalist Intruder in a Federalist Constitution\u003C\/i\u003E, 24\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003EHOFSTRA L. REV. 89 (1995)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp style=\u0022margin-left:16px; text-align:justify; text-indent:-11.95pt\u0022\u003EMichael Stokes Paulsen, \u003Ci\u003EIs Lloyd Bentsen Unconstitu-tional?, \u003C\/i\u003E46\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003ESTAN. L. REV.\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003E907 (1994)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n          \u003C\/div\u003E\n  \n        \u003C\/div\u003E\n        \u003Cdiv data-tabs-pane class=\u0022tabs-pane\u0022 id=\u0022node-10000027-tabb\u0022\u003E\n          \n      \u003Cdiv\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnited States v. Hartwell, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 385 (1868)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMcLean v. United States, 226 U.S. 374 (1912)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ci\u003EEx parte \u003C\/i\u003ELevitt, 302 U.S. 633 (1937)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp style=\u0022margin-left:16px; text-align:justify; text-indent:-11.95pt\u0022\u003EMcClure v. Carter, 513 F. Supp. 265 (D. Idaho 1981), \u003Ci\u003Eaff\u2019d\u003C\/i\u003E, 454 U.S. 1025 (1981)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n              \u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERodearmel v. Clinton, 666 F. Supp. 2d 123 (2009)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n          \u003C\/div\u003E\n  \n        \u003C\/div\u003E\n        \u003Cdiv data-tabs-pane class=\u0022tabs-pane\u0022 id=\u0022node-10000027-tabc\u0022\u003E\n                      \u003Ca href=\u0022\/essay_controller\/10000090\u0022 class=\u0022use-ajax\u0022\u003EAppointments Clause\u003C\/a\u003E\n                  \u003C\/div\u003E\n      \u003C\/div\u003E\n    \u003C\/div\u003E\n  \n\u003C\/article\u003E\n"]}]