U.S. Constitution, Article One, Section Six prohibits senators (or representatives) from taking a civil office if the legislator has voted to increase the pay for that job:
"No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office."
We're not lawyers. But we do speak English. And to our eyes that constitutional clause doesn't say anything about getting around the provision by reducing or not benefiting from the increase of said "Emoluments."
It flat-out prohibits taking the civil office if the pay has been increased during the would-be appointee's elected term. Period. Which it has.
This seems more like a TV scriptwriter's trick to keep everyone hanging around through the commercials starting tomorrow.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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