Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0909
Case Information
- Source
- congress.gov / U.S. Government Publishing Office (BILLS-119s22is)
- Author
- 119th Congress (Sen. Joni Ernst)
- Publication Date
- 2025-01-07
- Content Type
- Legal / Normative Text
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-22
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
This bill takes the framework's signature metaphor and makes it literal — it drains the swamp by moving the federal agencies out of it — scoring near the top of the aligned band for a structural attack on the Washington bureaucratic concentration, held just short of the top by the gradual, forward-looking design of its mechanism. No Executive agency may keep its HQ in the D.C. metro area going forward; existing HQs are starved of new construction and leases until they move; States and localities compete to host relocated agencies. It advances the limits of Washington more literally than almost any measure scored — physically dispersing power out of the D.C. bubble (XII); brings government nearer the people, breaking the Beltway monoculture (II); sheds the capital's real-estate premium, funded by property sales not new appropriations (X); and disperses federal jobs across the country (XIII). Disciplined design: exempts the national-security core (EOP, Defense, Intelligence, DHS, State, Energy) and uses competitive bidding, not fiat. Held a step below its more aggressive companion (0910) by gradualism — a forward-looking prohibition and attrition rather than a hard-timeline order. No Rule 6 trigger. Legal/Normative Text (85/15), no JI. Mostly America First (79).
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0909 is hereby entered into the record, in accordance with the America First Constitutional Standard. The score stands. The reasoning is published. The record is public.