Jack Balkin and Mark Tushnet argue that the Senate can, in fact, refuse to seat Roland Burris.
Meanwhile, since I don’t think I’ve said this before, we should all be clear that Burris and Bobby Rush are really behaving in an irresponsible manner here. It would have been the simplest thing on earth for Burris to just resist the temptations of higher office and say “no” to Blagojevich’s scheme here. It’s very hard to imagine that their actions over these past couple of days are advancing the cause of progressive politics or the interests of African-Americans. See also this, this, and this from Ta-Nehisi Coates.
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