Professor Glashausser Discusses Debt Ceiling Options With MinnPost.com

Professor Alex Glashausser's article, "The Last Word on the Debt Ceiling," originally published June 2012 in the Huffington Post politics blog, was extensively discussed in the January 21, 2013 article "Obama's Best Argument for Getting Around Debt Ceiling? Lex Posterior Derogat Priori" at MinnPost.com.

In his June article Professor Glashausser observes that since "Congress gives explicit, unqualified instructions to spend money ... its earlier exhortations to limit debt must fall silent." The debt ceiling law is in conflict with current appropriations bills. He concludes that "the President should just forget that part about freezing the debt. He should instead instruct the treasury to borrow the money necessary to implement the legislature's later directive to spend."

The MinnPost.com article asserts lex posterior derogat priori is a valid mechanism for getting around the debt crisis.

Professor Glashausser said "The president would simply announce that Congress had created a 'Catch-22' situation requiring him to both borrow and not borrow the money." The President would take the position that the appropriation bills amount to an implicit repeal of the debt ceiling because newer law trumps older law.