Tuesday, March 07, 2006

From the Boston Globe

From today's article about raising the national debt limit:

''I know that you share the president's and my commitment to maintaining the full faith and credit of the US government," Snow said in his letter to leaders in the House and Senate. His ''full faith and credit" comment referred to the Fourth Amendment. (emph. added)


oops.

posted by elf's DH at 9:01 AM. Permanent Link  | 
Comments:
Not even sure why it matters whether it's the 4th amendment or article of the Constitution - isn't "full faith and credit" about states honoring other states' public acts?
posted by Anonymous Anonymous at Tue Mar 07, 11:34:00 AM EST. Link
 
It's also a financial term -- according to one site, it's defined as "An unconditional commitment to pay interest and principal on debt, usually issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury or another government entity." There's probably some interesting etymological history there, but I'm not sure that there's any actual connection between the financial angle and the Full Faith and Credit Clause in Article Four of the Constitution -- which is regardless very different from the Fourth Amendment, except in number.
posted by Blogger fleurdelis28 at Tue Mar 07, 12:19:00 PM EST. Link
 
I'll bet that you're both right. The AP writer probably had only heard the term in relation to the fourth something in the Constitution, and assumed it must have been an allusion to it.
posted by Blogger elf's DH at Tue Mar 07, 01:21:00 PM EST. Link
 
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