Ubiquitous
2020-04-15 01:05:08 UTC
President Trump clearly overstated the case when he asserted that the
presidents authority in the current crisis is total. The fact is that the
Constitution doesnt grant total authority to any branch of the government.
It looks, though, at least to us, as if Mr. Trump was set off by news that
some states were entering into regional compacts to plan the reopening of
their economies.
If that is what set Mr. Trump off, its easy to see why. Mr. Trump and all
other officers and legislators and judges of the federal and state
governments are bound by oath to the Constitution. Yet that same parchment
absolutely forbids the states, without the consent of Congress, from entering
into any Agreement or Compact with another State.
That is American bedrock. Its right up there with the prohibition on states
granting titles of nobility, say, or keeping ships of war in time of peace.
One doesnt have to be a Civil War buff to see that states forming compacts
or agreements with other states smacks of a challenge to federal authority,
no matter how un-total a presidents authority might be.
Yet a bloom of stories in the press suggests states have begun doing just
what the Constitution says they cant. Governors Form Compacts to Coordinate
Reopening Society is the headline in the New York Times. Governor Cuomo is
boasting of the compact being formed between New York and its near neighbors
like New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
In reporting what Washington, Oregon, and California are doing, the
Guardians choice of word was that theyd agreed to a framework. Again,
absent an okay from Congress, states cant form with another state any
compact or agreement. If theres any effort to get approval from Congress, we
havent been able to find word of it in the press.
Let us pause here to note that the Sun opposes pedantry. Plus, too, we
understand that the Constitution grants an exception to the compact
prohibition in cases where a state has been actually invaded or is in such
imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Its hard to see, though, where
in our electronic age its difficult for Mr. Cuomo to seek a congressional
okay.
What gets us, in any event, is the way the Democrats are dragging out of
every constitutional saloon some law professor to declaim on what an
ignoramus the president is while also ignoring the way the states are
blowing past the compact and agreement clause. In respect of the
Constitution, it seems to us, one needs to be in for the goose as well as the
gander.
Nor is our concern merely academic. Mr. Trump may not be, as he suggested,
facing a mutiny, even if the governors policies differ from the
Presidents. Tens of thousands of lives are in jeopardy in the battle against
the coronavirus, though, and people are scared. A whiff, if only a whiff, of
violence is in the air as some states or even towns try to keep out
strangers.
We arent predicting that things will get out of hand in America. Its not,
though, a possibility to ignore completely. Careful leadership is at a
premium at every level of government just now. This is a moment when everyone
not just the president, but the governors and the press needs to stay
within the constitutional traces.
--
Every American should want President Trump and his administration to
handle the coronavirus epidemic effectively and successfully. Those who
seem eager to see the president fail and to call every administration
misstep a fiasco risk letting their partisanship blind them to the
demands not only of civic responsibility but of basic decency.
presidents authority in the current crisis is total. The fact is that the
Constitution doesnt grant total authority to any branch of the government.
It looks, though, at least to us, as if Mr. Trump was set off by news that
some states were entering into regional compacts to plan the reopening of
their economies.
If that is what set Mr. Trump off, its easy to see why. Mr. Trump and all
other officers and legislators and judges of the federal and state
governments are bound by oath to the Constitution. Yet that same parchment
absolutely forbids the states, without the consent of Congress, from entering
into any Agreement or Compact with another State.
That is American bedrock. Its right up there with the prohibition on states
granting titles of nobility, say, or keeping ships of war in time of peace.
One doesnt have to be a Civil War buff to see that states forming compacts
or agreements with other states smacks of a challenge to federal authority,
no matter how un-total a presidents authority might be.
Yet a bloom of stories in the press suggests states have begun doing just
what the Constitution says they cant. Governors Form Compacts to Coordinate
Reopening Society is the headline in the New York Times. Governor Cuomo is
boasting of the compact being formed between New York and its near neighbors
like New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
In reporting what Washington, Oregon, and California are doing, the
Guardians choice of word was that theyd agreed to a framework. Again,
absent an okay from Congress, states cant form with another state any
compact or agreement. If theres any effort to get approval from Congress, we
havent been able to find word of it in the press.
Let us pause here to note that the Sun opposes pedantry. Plus, too, we
understand that the Constitution grants an exception to the compact
prohibition in cases where a state has been actually invaded or is in such
imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Its hard to see, though, where
in our electronic age its difficult for Mr. Cuomo to seek a congressional
okay.
What gets us, in any event, is the way the Democrats are dragging out of
every constitutional saloon some law professor to declaim on what an
ignoramus the president is while also ignoring the way the states are
blowing past the compact and agreement clause. In respect of the
Constitution, it seems to us, one needs to be in for the goose as well as the
gander.
Nor is our concern merely academic. Mr. Trump may not be, as he suggested,
facing a mutiny, even if the governors policies differ from the
Presidents. Tens of thousands of lives are in jeopardy in the battle against
the coronavirus, though, and people are scared. A whiff, if only a whiff, of
violence is in the air as some states or even towns try to keep out
strangers.
We arent predicting that things will get out of hand in America. Its not,
though, a possibility to ignore completely. Careful leadership is at a
premium at every level of government just now. This is a moment when everyone
not just the president, but the governors and the press needs to stay
within the constitutional traces.
--
Every American should want President Trump and his administration to
handle the coronavirus epidemic effectively and successfully. Those who
seem eager to see the president fail and to call every administration
misstep a fiasco risk letting their partisanship blind them to the
demands not only of civic responsibility but of basic decency.