Tag: Civics For GrownUps

Alternative Fact: Constitutional Amendments Are Easy

Alternative Fact: Courtesy of Mnuchin on Fox News Sunday:

MNUCHIN: Well, it doesn’t need to be reality. And I’m not going to comment on what the president will do. But as you heard him say, he’s not planning on doing this again. I think — I think they should give the president a line item veto. These things should be looked at —

WALLACE: But that’s been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, sir.

MNUCHIN: Well, again, Congress could pass a rule, OK, that allows them to do it. But —

WALLACE: No, no, sir, it would be a constitutional amendment.

MNUCHIN: Chris, we don’t — we don’t need to get into a debate in terms of — there’s different ways of doing this.

Real Fact: It actually is a Constitutional amendment, and while there may well be many ways of “doing this” … they shouldn’t fare any better. That’s the basic principal of the three branches of government. Sadly, I suspect many in Trump’s administration could use a civics refresher. While the principal of a line-item veto could be rewritten in an altered form, the decision in Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998) wasn’t quibbling details. They found that the Executive branch altering legislation violates the Presentment Clause.

Licenses

How long before someone manages to explain the FCC to Trump? Because NBC? Not actually licensed – if you don’t believe my knowledge of communication regulation, check out the FCC’s own web page! The station that is using a specific frequency to magic NBC’s content through the air and into my home, now THEY are licensed. Tenga (here in Cleveland) could have their license yanked. Court would stay the order about eight seconds later, and I doubt even having Gorsuch puts the SC in a position to uphold a license revocation over a free speech issue. But they *have* a license to revoke.

And? If you are going to attack someone for reporting on your vastly lacking knowledge about laws and such, maybe do a little research to make sure your threat itself doesn’t demonstrate said vast lack of knowledge.