Professor Jacob Charles Quoted in "Mint the Coin? Buy Back Bonds?" -- Washington Post

Professor Jacob D. Charles is quoted in the Washington Post article "Mint the Coin? Buy Back Bonds? 7 ‘Gimmicks’ for Dodging the Debt Limit."  The article considers the proposed solutions to end the standoff regarding the nation's debt ceiling and the federal budget.

Excerpt from "Mint the Coin? Buy Back Bonds? 7 ‘Gimmicks’ for Dodging the Debt Limit"

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress approved the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which stipulates in Section 4 that the federal government's public debts must be repaid. The purpose of this part of the amendment, passed by the radical Republicans in the 1860s who feared a revived South, was to make clear that the federal government was responsible for honoring the national debt incurred during the war —even if former Confederate states didn't want to pay their share of it.

Some scholars have argued that this provision would enable the president to ignore the debt limit. Congress's actions during the debt ceiling standoff of 2011, under this interpretation, violated the Constitution, according to a 2013 academic paper by Jacob D. Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law.  "A conclusion of this nature would be the basis for the president to ignore the debt limit when congressional actions create unconstitutional doubt about the validity of the public debt," Charles wrote.

The complete article may be found at Washington Post (registration required)