A Thought Or Two On The Burris Mess

Happy New Year, etc.

So it was looking like the whole should-the-senate-seat-Roland-Burris-? (STSSRB?) mess was headed toward a not very odd partisan divide.* Then Jonah Goldberg had to come in and muck everything up by giving a tepid endorsement to the left-leaning Amar/Chafetz argument concerning STSSRB.** The rightward-tilted Volokh people believe that the answer to STSSRB? is yes. Though they would tend to frame the question as must-the-senate-seat-Roland Burris-? (MTSSRB?). Brian Kalt agrees. And he's a member of the Federalist Society.***

Through a certain ideological lens, it would appear that the Amar/Chafetz interpretation of the impact of Powell v. McCormack on STSSRB? is the right one. Powell v. McCormack, after all, involved the House's attempt to refuse to seat the clearly-elected Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. On that basis, and based on good ole principles of the common law development, it would seem that Powell doesn't speak at all to STSSRB? or MTSSRB?

UPDATE (2:30 p.m.): Prof. Tribe proves/agrees with at least a couple of points in this post. Without even intending to. He is that cool.

*Why not very odd? Well, because right leaning legal thinkers tend to vote Republican (and vice versa). People who tend to vote Republican tend to want Republicans to win as many seats in the Senate as possible (and vice versa). And, uh, Roland Burris might be a ripe target for a Republican pickup (whereas a Democrat appointed by Pat Quinn might be a bit stronger). Just maybe.

**Of course, the structure of said tepid endorsement is typical Jonah Goldberg. Structure: (A) I don't have a strong about opinion about mildly controversial issue X; (B) But I don't think argument Y about issue X is totally crazy. A + B = Jonah Goldberg can never be wrong.

***He also went to the University of Michigan. This means that he is at least 95% awesome. Membership in the Federalist Society, however, means that he is probably 95% wrong about things not related to the awesomeness of the University of Michigan.