Corker law

The Corker Law, officially known as Bipartisan Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act and informally still called the "Corker bill," is a misguided federal law that circumvents the Treaty Clause in the U.S. Constitution, and essentially requires not a 2/3rds vote to ratify a foreign treaty, but a 2/3rds vote to reject one (in order to override a presidential veto). In other words, the Corker law replaces the Treaty Clause with respect to Iran such that a majority vote in Congress can reject the deal, but the president can then reject the congressional vote, which would require a 2/3rds vote by each house of Congress to override the veto.

Only one senator voted against this law: Tom Cotton, who explains that it violates the Constitution. He explained:

“

A nuclear-arms agreement with any adversary—especially the terror-sponsoring, Islamist Iranian regime—should be submitted as a treaty and obtain a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate as required by the Constitution.

”

Disappointingly, Senator's Ted Cruz and Rand Paul voted for the Corker bill.

Background

Senator Bob Corker, a RINO from Tennessee, introduced this bill as a compromise with respect to the proposed deal being negotiated by the Obama Administration with Iran.

Constitutionality

The U.S. Supreme Court has never addressed the constitutionality of this approach.