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Jewish World Review July 31, 2000 / 28 Tamuz, 5760

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Consumer Reports


Bush-Cheney ticket: A constitutional problem


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IN NOVEMBER 1999, a year before the coming presidential election, Texas Gov. George W. Bush laid out his No. 1 criterion in picking Supreme Court justices.

"The most primary issue is," he told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," "Will they strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States."

Strictly.

Let's apply that standard to his vice presidential selection this week.

The Constitution sets up a clear obstacle to the election of a president and vice president each of whom is an "inhabitant" of the same state.

Article Two prohibits electors from any state, Texas included, to choose persons for both president and vice president from their own state. It requires that such electors vote "for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves."

This prohibition was retained in the 12th amendment, ratified in 1804, which provided for separate election to the nation's two top offices. (Originally, the second-place finisher in the Electoral College balloting became vice president.)

I am fascinated by that word "inhabitant," which appears in both the original text and the amendment.

Webster's defines an inhabitant as "one that occupies a particular place regularly, routinely, or for a period of time."

Richard Cheney is chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton of Dallas, Texas, a city to which he moved five years ago.

Cheney owns other homes, living parts of the year in Wyoming and also in McLean, Va., across the Potomac River from here.

But the former defense secretary and Wyoming congressman is also, most certainly, an "inhabitant" of Texas by the dictionary definition. Even the casual TV viewer may have caught him picking up his morning newspapers on a certain Highland Park, Texas, driveway earlier this week.

Thus, while Cheney is known to own homes in and inhabit other states, at various seasons of the year, he is most certainly an "inhabitant" of Texas. I say this because where you get your morning newspapers is probably a good, if lagging, indicator of where you spent the night before.

I return you to that word "strictly." Candidate Bush promises to fill Supreme Court vacancies with people who interpret the Constitution literally. How, then, does he justify selecting a running mate whose selection by Texas electors would violate the very word of the Constitution?

He justified it by having Cheney fly late last week to Wyoming, a state he vacated five years ago, to re-register as a voter. That may satisfy his residence requirement to vote in Wyoming. He remains, however, an "inhabitant" of Texas.

A strict reader of the Constitution might be concerned.



JWR contributor Chris Matthews is the author of Hardball. and hosts a CNBC show of the same name. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

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