Mr. Boehner, Please Read the Constitution

Presumptive Speaker of the House John Boehner has suggested that the first thing Congress should do to save the taxpayers' money is to cut the salaries of the Congress.

Admirable thought.

Too bad it's unconstitutional. To quote the 27th Amendment:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

In plain language, that means that for the remainder of the 111th Congress and the entirety of the 112th to come, our Congress can only vary the salaries of the 113th Congress, who won't be elected until 2012 and take office in January, 2013.

It says "varying" - not "raising" or "lowering".

The 27th Amendment is one of my favorites - certainly for its content - but also for its ratification history. The amendment was one of the original twelve proposed by the First Congress, ten of which became what we know as the Bill of Rights.

It was adopted by the Congress on September 25, 1789. It became part of the supreme law of the land on May 18, 1992. 202+ years to get the requisite three-fourths of the states to ratify!

I'll have more to say about the 27th Amendment after I do some research on the case where it was adjudicated. The case happens to be...Boehner v. Anderson!