Borrowing Power
BORROWING POWER
Congress, under Article I, section 8, of the Constitution, may "borrow money on the credit of the United States." This power is ordinarily exercised through the sale of bonds or the issuance of bills of credit. The latter, sometimes called "treasury notes" or "greenbacks," are intended to circulate as currency and thus, in effect, to require the public to lend money to the government. In the gold clause cases (1935) the Supreme Court held that the government, in borrowing, is bound by the terms of its contracts, but Congress, by invoking sovereign immunity, denied its creditors any legal remedy.
Dennis J. Mahoney
(1986)
More From encyclopedia.com
Legal Tender , LEGAL TENDER is anything that, by law, a debtor may require his creditor to receive in payment of a debt in the absence of the appearance in the cont… Continental Congress , During its fifteen-year existence, the Continental Congress served as the chief legislative and executive body of the federal government. Although ho… Martin V Hunters Lessee , Martin v. Hunter'S Lessee
The framing of the U.S. Constitution came after the articles of confederation failed to create a viable national government… Conscription , The power of the federal government to conscript may derive either from its power to raise armies or, more debatably, from its broadly interpreted po… John Grier Hibben , Supreme Court, War, and the Military. Since its founding (1789), the U.S. Supreme Court generally has avoided questions of war, peace, and foreign af… Legal Tender Cases , The Legal Tender Cases include the decisions in Hepburn v. Griswold (1870), invalidating civil war legislation authorizing paper money, and Knox v. L…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
Borrowing Power