Alright, folks, let’s talk about government hypocrisy—sorry, I mean, “creative problem-solving.” Because on this day in 1909, lawmakers pulled off one of the slickest legal gymnastics moves ever attempted in U.S. history. You know the U.S. Constitution? That ironclad document designed to keep things fair and balanced? Yeah, turns out, it’s more like a DIY IKEA shelf—sturdy in theory, but with enough wiggling, you can make it do whatever you want.
So here’s what happened: President-elect William Howard Taft—you remember him, the one who got stuck in a bathtub, or at least that’s the legend—he really wanted a guy named Philander C. Knox to be his Secretary of State. (Yes, Philander. That was his real name. The early 1900s were wild.)
But there was a problem: the Ineligibility Clause of the Constitution. This little rule says that members of Congress can’t be appointed to high-ranking jobs if the salary for that job was raised while they were in office. Why? Because otherwise, senators would be sitting around all day going, “Hey, you know what should pay more? The exact job I’d like to have in six months.”
And wouldn’t you know it? Knox was a senator, and—whoops!—the salary for Secretary of State had gone up from $8,000 to $12,000 while he was in office. Which meant Knox was technically ineligible.
Did this stop Congress? HA! No. Because Congress looked at the Constitution and said, “Well, what if we just… reverse it?” That’s right. Instead of following the rule, they changed the Secretary of State’s salary back to $8,000, just so Knox could take the job. That’s like getting caught breaking into a bank and instead of getting arrested, they just ask you to put the money back and walk away.
The Senate? They passed this idea unanimously. The House? Took a little convincing, because some people had the audacity to say, “Wait, isn’t this just a workaround to ignore the Constitution?” But eventually, it passed, and BOOM—Knox was Secretary of State by March 6.
And the best part? This little trick stuck. Years later, Nixon—because of course Nixon—used the same move to get a guy named William Saxbe confirmed as Attorney General, and from then on, we started calling it the “Saxbe fix.”
So what did we learn from this? One: Congress is basically an improv troupe when it comes to laws—“Yes, and… we’ll just rewrite the rules!” Two: If you ever get caught breaking a rule, just convince everyone to pretend it never existed in the first place. And three: The U.S. government—always finding new and exciting ways to make sure the rules only apply when they want them to.
