Analysis: Must Senate seat Burris?
Lyle Denniston writes on SCOTUS Blog:
On the Senate’s authority to judge the mode of selection of new members, the courts have been quite deferential. There is no indication that the courts, if drawn into the issue, would evaluate congressional action regarding the mode of selection any differently in the case of an appointed member than for an elected member.
The Supreme Court, in the Powell decision, did not question the authority of a house of Congress under Article I, Section 5, except as to qualifications of the member-elect personally . . .
Thus, the Senate may well be in a position to look behind a Blagojevich appointment and apply a federal Senate standard of propriety regarding the appointing authority (the governor) — so long as it did not add a new “qualification” as such for the individual chosen . . .