Historian Eric Foner of Columbia sees “a way out of the current impasse” over the debt ceiling. His scheme is for President Biden to invoke the debt clause of the Reconstruction-era 14th Amendment. Mr. Foner suggests that its language — declaring that the “validity of the public debt of the United States” shall “not be questioned” — means that Mr. Biden can “act on his own” to ensure America’s debts are paid at their original value. 

This strikes us as inaccurate, even if, as Mr. Foner puts it, “long-forgotten provisions of the 14th Amendment are suddenly crying out for enforcement.” The historian notes that the validity of the federal debt was one of the “political conflicts” of the post-Civil War era. He’s right to note that the amendment bars action by any branch of government to cancel or repudiate that debt. Yet the amendment grants no power of unilateral action to Mr. Biden.