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What Does It Take To Have A Constitutional Crisis?

By Ron Elving
Published May 29, 2018 at 10:09 AM CDT

The Constitution is something of an owners manual for taxpayers. But, like many an owners manual, it doesn't necessarily cover all the bases.

A constitutional crisis occurs at a moment when the Constitution is not enough to resolve a question or a conflict.

This could happen for several reasons:

  • The Constitiution can be silent on a given issue.

  • The Constitution can be ambiguous.

  • The Constitution is open to interpretation.

    • But the ultimate constitutional crisis would come if one side or the other were unwilling to budge in search of a resolution.

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Ron Elving
    Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News, where he is frequently heard as a news analyst and writes regularly for NPR.org.
    See stories by Ron Elving
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