JONATHAN ADLER: Why the 14th Amendment Option Is Not on the Table. “The argument that the President could unilaterally breach the debt ceiling is one of those constitutional arguments that may seem superficially appealing, but that falls apart under scrutiny. As Laurence Tribe has pointed out, such a move would entail the usurpation of a power expressly delegated to the legislature and cause the very evil — calling the nation’s debts into question — that Section 4 of the 14th Amendment was drafted to prevent.”

It would, I believe, be grounds for declaring the President a usurper and illegitimate, fit not only for impeachment, but for having all of his actions disregarded from that point on; it could be the trigger for something like a civil war. I think the White House agrees, which is why they aren’t buying this argument put forth by law professors with more ingenuity than political sense.