Congressional Term

WASHINGTON -- Fueled by voter resentment, the political steamroller to limit the terms of members of Congress is running strongly into the New Year but also faces a potential constitutional roadblock.While seven states prepare to vote on the same kind of curbs on Capitol Hill incumbents that already have been adopted in 15 other states, a constitutional challenge put on a fast track by a federal judge in Seattle is moving ahead, too, with a potentially fateful hearing due this month.The idea that members of Congress should not have unlimited chances to get re-elected has now become a topic of national debate, with the opposing sides hardening their rhetoric as well as their positions.

WASHINGTON -- Republican Reps. Tom Coburn and George Nethercutt were elected to Congress in 1994 as part of a wave of "citizen" lawmakers who pledged to stay only six years and then return to life among their constituents.Now in his last term, Coburn says he's been liberated to act as he sees fit and to answer to no one on Capitol Hill. The Oklahoman has made it his mission to force Congress to meet spending caps and vows to tie up the House all summer in an effort to trim costly pet projects.

WASHINGTON -- Digging deeply into history for guidance on a major constitutional dispute of today, the Supreme Court reaches the congressional term-limits issue this week.In recent days, the justices and their clerks have been poring over a stack of blue, red, green and yellow briefs, preparing for a 90-minute hearing tomorrow and for a later ruling that just might shake the foundations of Congress.The constitutional question is one of the most basic the court has faced in years, and one the court has never considered in the Constitution's 207-year history.

WASHINGTON -- Saying no to a political idea with wide popularity, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that it would take an amendment to the Constitution to limit the terms of members of the House and Senate.Congress, the states and the voters have no power now to impose restrictions on the number of times that incumbents may seek election, the court said in a 5-4 ruling.The Constitution spells out specifically who may run for Congress, and those qualifications -- U.S. citizenship, age and residency -- are the only ones, "fixed and unalterable," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, a 20-year court veteran and the second in seniority.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to settle a core constitutional question that reaches back to America's founding and now fuels a hot political controversy: states' power to limit congressional terms.The "term limits" movement, a spreading campaign that has capitalized on voters' deep discontent with politics, has lost two key battles in lower courts over limits on the number of terms a lawmaker may serve in the House or Senate.Now, the nation's highest court has agreed to hear an Arkansas case, the first major test case on the question.

WASHINGTON -- Republican Reps. Tom Coburn and George Nethercutt were elected to Congress in 1994 as part of a wave of "citizen" lawmakers who pledged to stay only six years and then return to life among their constituents.Now in his last term, Coburn says he's been liberated to act as he sees fit and to answer to no one on Capitol Hill. The Oklahoman has made it his mission to force Congress to meet spending caps and vows to tie up the House all summer in an effort to trim costly pet projects.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear a congressional term limits case is good news. We hope the high court takes up the case quickly next term and renders a rapid verdict. We hope it will rule that term limits are unconstitutional.We expect that it will. In order to uphold term limits, the high court would have to read into the Constitution's Ninth and Tenth amendments the right of states to over-rule the "congressional qualifications" clause of the Constitution's Article I. That is something no judge has been willing to do.Advocates of term limits for members of Congress make some good arguments about the ill effects that come with entrenched incumbency, but they would treat all veteran legislators alike.

Critic of term limitsFrom: Jim KraftColumbiaThis letter is written in response to Janet Sloan's letter of May 10 [The Howard County Sun, Readers Write, "Term limits are needed"]. I assume from the contents of her letter that it was written in response to my letter of the previous week. However, those contents, in many ways, bear such little relation to the points made in mine that it may be reaching on my part to make such an assumption.I find it interesting that she writes "on behalf of all Americans."

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress, and particularly House Speaker Tom Foley, no doubt are breathing easier in the (( wake of a federal judge's decision in Foley's home state of Washington throwing out term limits imposed by the voters in 1992.Foley would have had to give up his House seat in 1998 as the result of a ballot initiative approved 15 months ago. But the judge ruled that the state may not impose qualifications beyond those of age, citizenship and state residency stipulated in the Constitution.

WASHINGTON -- Voters have forced a dramatic turnover in Congress in the past decade, but the change seems only to have heightened their enthusiasm for an uphill legislative battle to guarantee periodic housecleanings."

WASHINGTON -- Voters have forced a dramatic turnover in Congress in the past decade, but the change seems only to have heightened their enthusiasm for an uphill legislative battle to guarantee periodic housecleanings."

WASHINGTON -- Digging deeply into history for guidance on a major constitutional dispute of today, the Supreme Court reaches the congressional term-limits issue this week.In recent days, the justices and their clerks have been poring over a stack of blue, red, green and yellow briefs, preparing for a 90-minute hearing tomorrow and for a later ruling that just might shake the foundations of Congress.The constitutional question is one of the most basic the court has faced in years, and one the court has never considered in the Constitution's 207-year history.

WASHINGTON -- All through House Speaker Tom Foley's unsuccessful campaign for re-election in the face of the concerted drive to defeat him by advocates of congressional term limits, he argued that the best term-limits device was the ballot box. If you didn't like the job your congressman was doing, Foley said, you had a chance every two years to throw him out.After passing up that chance in 15 straight elections, voters in his district in Washington state...

The Supreme Court's decision to hear a congressional term limits case is good news. We hope the high court takes up the case quickly next term and renders a rapid verdict. We hope it will rule that term limits are unconstitutional.We expect that it will. In order to uphold term limits, the high court would have to read into the Constitution's Ninth and Tenth amendments the right of states to over-rule the "congressional qualifications" clause of the Constitution's Article I. That is something no judge has been willing to do.Advocates of term limits for members of Congress make some good arguments about the ill effects that come with entrenched incumbency, but they would treat all veteran legislators alike.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to settle a core constitutional question that reaches back to America's founding and now fuels a hot political controversy: states' power to limit congressional terms.The "term limits" movement, a spreading campaign that has capitalized on voters' deep discontent with politics, has lost two key battles in lower courts over limits on the number of terms a lawmaker may serve in the House or Senate.Now, the nation's highest court has agreed to hear an Arkansas case, the first major test case on the question.

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress, and particularly House Speaker Tom Foley, no doubt are breathing easier in the (( wake of a federal judge's decision in Foley's home state of Washington throwing out term limits imposed by the voters in 1992.Foley would have had to give up his House seat in 1998 as the result of a ballot initiative approved 15 months ago. But the judge ruled that the state may not impose qualifications beyond those of age, citizenship and state residency stipulated in the Constitution.

WASHINGTON -- Saying no to a political idea with wide popularity, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that it would take an amendment to the Constitution to limit the terms of members of the House and Senate.Congress, the states and the voters have no power now to impose restrictions on the number of times that incumbents may seek election, the court said in a 5-4 ruling.The Constitution spells out specifically who may run for Congress, and those qualifications -- U.S. citizenship, age and residency -- are the only ones, "fixed and unalterable," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, a 20-year court veteran and the second in seniority.

WASHINGTON -- All through House Speaker Tom Foley's unsuccessful campaign for re-election in the face of the concerted drive to defeat him by advocates of congressional term limits, he argued that the best term-limits device was the ballot box. If you didn't like the job your congressman was doing, Foley said, you had a chance every two years to throw him out.After passing up that chance in 15 straight elections, voters in his district in Washington state...

WASHINGTON -- Fueled by voter resentment, the political steamroller to limit the terms of members of Congress is running strongly into the New Year but also faces a potential constitutional roadblock.While seven states prepare to vote on the same kind of curbs on Capitol Hill incumbents that already have been adopted in 15 other states, a constitutional challenge put on a fast track by a federal judge in Seattle is moving ahead, too, with a potentially fateful hearing due this month.The idea that members of Congress should not have unlimited chances to get re-elected has now become a topic of national debate, with the opposing sides hardening their rhetoric as well as their positions.

Washington. -- As many as 15 states will be voting in November on a bad idea. This is the idea of limiting the consecutive terms of members of Congress. The regrettable prospect is that most of these referendums will pass.The drive for term limitation draws its energy from an idealistic principle, a doubtful assumption and a long-festering animosity.The principle dates from the time of George Mason and Thomas Jefferson, or perhaps from the time of Cincinnatus. It rests upon the image of the citizen lawmaker who lays aside his plow and devotes his energy for a brief time to public affairs.