Joseph Scott

Article II - Section 4:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Treason, bribery and misdemeanors are reasonably well defined terms, but I’m curious about the ‘other high crimes’ text. Is this wiggle room that essentially allows Congress determine on their own what constitutes an impeachable offense?

Other Constitution posts.

A gradually growing list of people have run into a very odd problem using XML-RPC methods in WordPress, where the left angle bracket ( < ) gets stripped. There's been a fair bit of discussion about this on ticket #7771. The bottom line: the behavior of the PHP XML extension when built against newer versions of libxml2 changed, such that left angle brackets get stripped when parsing XML.

There’s been some back and forth between libxml2 folks (email list) and the PHP folks (bug 45996), with no real solution for those using the tainted versions of libxml2. So what are your options if you’ve got this problem? Here’s two:

• Stick with older, known to work versions of libxml2. It’s been reported by others that libxml2 <= 2.6.32 work. I've personally only tested up to 2.6.30, which has been working fine for me.
• Build the PHP XML module against the expat parser instead of libxml2

Both of these options require some server admin abilities and know how, making them unrealistic options for many WordPress users. Undoubtedly many hosting services will role out these newer versions of libxml2 as part of their regular updates. This will leave some WordPress users with sudden errors that weren’t there before.

As this was spurred by a change in behavior by libxml2, I think the ideal solution would be to provide a backwards compatible mode that would restore the old parsing mechanism (you know, the one that doesn’t strip angle brackets). Short of that happening perhaps the XML extension for PHP will need to grow to work correctly with the new way that libxml2 works. Either way, I’d like to see PHP XML parsing work correctly again.

If you aren’t having any of these problems right now I recommend NOT upgrading libxml2 on your system until this has been sorted out.

Article II - Section 3:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Funny the number of things that I figured came about over time as the country and the government evolved but in reality have been there since the beginning. I’ve seen my fair share of State of the Union addresses, but didn’t realize that this was Constitutional requirement. I knew the President could call special sessions of Congress, but not that he could adjourn them as well.

Other Constitution posts.

Article II - Section 2:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

I wonder if the “and of the Militia of the several States” text is what gives the President the power to call on State run National Guard units to deploy with Federally run military units.

Here also is where the Senate gets level of control over what the President can do. Next time you hear about the Senate having to approve a Supreme Court Justice or any other Presidential appointee you’ll be able to say, a ha! There’s Article II, Section 2, Paragraph 2 in action!

Other Constitution posts.

Article II - Section 1, paragraphs 1-2:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Ever wonder how many votes your state gets in the Electoral College? Take the number of Senators for your state (always 2) and the number of Representatives and add them together. Utah currently has 3 Representatives so we get a total of 5 votes in the Electoral College. Under this system every state gets at least 3 votes and California currently has the most at 55.

Paragraph 3 -

[The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.]¹

1- This whole paragraph has been superseded by the 12th Amendment.

The technicalities of who gets to count the votes and what constitutes a winner of the Presidential election and what happens if no ones gets a majority. The exact nature of this process has changed a few times.

Paragraphs 4-5:

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

So we can change the date of the Presidential elections, but it has to be the same day for the whole country.

I’m not announcing any intentions, but I am Constitutionally qualified to be President of the United States.

Paragraph 6:

[In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.]²

2- Replaced by the 25th Amendment.

Before the 25th Amendment if both the President and the Vice-President were removed from their position, then Congress had the power to pick a replacement.

Paragraphs 7-8:

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The President’s salary can’t be changed for the term being served, only afterwards. The specified salary is the only payment they are allowed to accept while serving.

I’d never really thought about where the oath of office for the President came from, makes sense that it would be right there in the Constitution. Interesting that the oath is to serve in the office and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”. Doesn’t say anything about serving the people, working with Congress or anything else, it completely focuses on the Constitution.

Other Constitution posts.

Note that the 10 m/s² is rounding up slightly. The actual value for Earth’s gravitational field is 9.8 m/s².

Article I - Section 10, paragraph 1:

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

States don’t get to entire into their own treaties or print their own money. Makes sense, would have been really bad if a state had decided to align themselves with Germany during WWII on their own.

Paragraph 2:

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

States can only tax imports or exports to cover their costs and even then Congress gets over sight of such taxes.

Paragraph 3:

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

States don’t get to keep their own troops during times of peace. I wonder what allows for states run National Guard units then.

That completes Article I of the Constitution.

Other Constitution posts.

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Article I - Section 9, paragraph 1:

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

Seems before 1808 we had a very open immigration policy.

Paragraphs 2-5:

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, [unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken]¹.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

1- Changed by the 16th Amendment in the early 1900s.

There’s certainly a lot we could talk about when it comes to Habeas Corpus. I wonder who gets to define when a rebellion or invasion has happened? The phrase public safety is also pretty wide. I’m not sure if trying to spell out what situations would trigger those clauses would help or not.

Paragraphs 6-8:

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Ships can move from state to state without having to pay fees, and money only leaves the treasury if a law says so. Not sure that ‘time to time’ tells me much. Every year, two years, decade?

Simply by observation I’ve known that we don’t grant titles (like knight/sir) to people in the US, but I didn’t realize that it was specifically not allowed under the Constitution. And beyond that we aren’t even allowed to accept such titles from other countries.

Other Constitution posts.