Orrin Hatch: “I am concerned about the Senator's feelings. I do not see a way in the world that the Court is going to find standing…”

“I am concerned about the Senator's feelings. I do not see a way in the world that the Court is going to find standing here, or even justiciability, let alone interpret the political question doctrine any other way than it has through all of the century, two centuries, of existence. To be honest, I just do not see how that is going to be. So we are interested in continuing dialog, and I will be interested in chatting with my friend and seeing just what he feels on this even further. But to make a long story short, again this is a bipartisan consensus amendment. Is it perfect? No. But it is as close to perfect as we can make it, and have a two-thirds majority in each body willing to vote for it. The Bill of Rights does not. None of them provide for judicial review. They certainly do not do it explicitly. We will put it this way. Only where one shows standing can one litigate. In the first amendment cases, for instance, one cannot sue to protect the right of third parties. These are tough areas of the law. I think the Senator did well to raise this issue. It has been raised in every debate I have ever had on this. But I just do not see constitutional experts on his side of the question. We will certainly discuss it with him and continue this dialog because we do want to get a balanced budget constitutional amendment passed, if we can.”