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Senate rejects Burris, but law may be on his side | csmonitor.com
News Type: Event — Seeded on Tue Jan 6, 2009 2:02 PM EST
Article Source: Christian Science Monitoradvertisement
He wasn't sworn in with his class on Tuesday, but it's looking more likely that Roland Burris will replace Barack Obama as the next junior senator from Illinois.
The Senate leadership has vowed to keep him out, and in Illinois, lawmakers and officials are fuming at the chutzpah of their governor, Rod Blagojevich, who faces criminal corruption charges and impeachment, in appointing a senator. Racial politics have added a new political wrinkle to the imbroglio.
But Mr. Burris, a former attorney general and comptroller in Illinois and a noted African-American politician, seems to face few legal hurdles that will stop him from eventually taking the office, though his credentials were rejected because the Illinois secretary of state had refused to sign the requisite paperwork.
"It seems pretty clear he's entitled to be seated," says Prof. Robert Bennett, at Northwestern University School of Law. A 1969 US Supreme Court ruling laid out the conditions in which Congress can refuse to seat a member, and the court reiterated them in a recent decision on term limits. Still, a few scenarios exist that could yet prevent Burris from holding the office for the next two years, says Professor Bennett.
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 | Senate Democrats yield to Obama, retreat on Burris | Associated Press | Fri Jan 2 | 21 |
| Conservative group sues Senate for barring Burris | Associated Press | Wed Jan 7 | 2 |
 | Democrat Roland Burris blocked from Senate | Reuters | Wed Jan 7 | 4 |
| Obama has to get Burris to give it up | Chicago Sun-Times | Wed Jan 7 | 1 |
| Blagojevich race card lands softly in Senate fight | Associated Press | Tue Jan 6 | 14 |
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{"commentId":4686961,"authorDomain":"BGStick"}
No one will like it but they have no right to turn him away, and the Illinois secretary of state has no legal right to refuse to sign the paperwork. Why is this not in the courts yet?
{"commentId":4686961,"threadId":"462333","contentId":"2280060","authorDomain":"BGStick"}
- 1 vote
#1 - Tue Jan 6, 2009 2:05 PM EST{"commentId":4687446,"authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
It sounds pretty dangerous for the Senate to decide who can be a Senator and who can't.
You have to be a stickler when it comes to defending the machinations of Democracy. Iraq under Saddam Hussein regularly held elections and he regularly got 99 to 100 % of the vote. We are a long way from that kind of sham, but it starts with things like this.
{"commentId":4687446,"threadId":"462333","contentId":"2280060","authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4691539,"authorDomain":"roybatty"}
He has every right to be seated, as argued before.
{"commentId":4691539,"threadId":"462333","contentId":"2280060","authorDomain":"roybatty"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":4698044,"authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
Good reference to the history, Roy. This morning on NPR was the first time I heard the media mention the actual case history regarding Adam Clayton Powell.
It would be a real shocker if the SCOTUS stuck its nose in this case or even the Al Franken case and meddled with the right's of the states to choose their own senators.
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