Military Congressmen

No person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

--U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 6)

The framers intended that provision to enforce "separation of powers"--the principle that all three branches of Government must be independent and thus able to check and balance one another. As one result, Cabinet members and all Government employees are forbidden to serve in Congress. But what about Congressmen who belong to the military reserves?

Last week that ticklish question was raised by a California-based group of military reservists who oppose the Viet Nam War. In a suit filed against the Secretary of Defense in the Washington, D.C., federal district court, the antiwar reservists claimed that 122 (more than one-fifth) of the nation's 535 Congressmen are violating the Constitution and may be unduly biased in favor of the military. Reason: they are members of reserve units or the National Guard.

The antiwar reservists seek a court order compelling Defense Secretary Melvin Laird to "remove from the rolls" all congressional reservists--which would include 29 members of key committees that deal with defense, foreign policy and appropriations. "As citizens and taxpayers," claimed Adam Hochschild, co-chairman of the Reservists Committee to Stop the War, "we are deprived of the unbiased judgment of these members of Congress on war and defense policy."

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