Durbin: I don't think the WH should rule out the 14 Amendment debt-limit option

On the same day the White House ruled out using the 14th Amendment to raise the federal debt limit, a Democratic senator said that tack should be reserved as “an option.”

“I don’t think they ought to rule it out,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told reporters Thursday.

The 14th Amendment asserts that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.” Some have argued that the president could use this as justification to unilaterally raise the debt limit, though it’s unclear whether courts would consider such a move constitutional.