Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that Secretary Clinton is ineligible to be secretary of state due to a clause in the Constitution that says no member of Congress can be appointed to a government job if the salary for it was increased during that member's current term (see Article I, Section 6, Clause 2), as reported by the Associated Press (AP).
When Clinton was a senator, Congress increased the salary for the secretary of state to $191,300, but to allow her to accept the cabinet post Congress later decreased it to $186,600, the amount it was when she began her second Senate term. The AP article states that similar moves have been made previously to allow members of Congress from both parties to serve in the cabinet.
The case, Rodearmel v. Clinton, 09-797, was brought by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, on behalf of State Department employee David Rodearmel who says that working for Clinton violates the oath he took as a Foreign Service officer to "bear true faith and allegiance" to the Constitution.
I'm not a law expert, but it seems that the spirit of Clause 2 wasn't violated. The salary was increased, but the increase was later rescinded, which prevented Clinton from benefiting from a pay increase she was able to vote on.
(In the photo above, Clinton is sworn in to her secretary-of-state post on Feb. 2, 2009, by Vice President Joe Biden, as husband Bill, daughter Chelsea, and mother Dorothy Rodham look on.)
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Despite being a Senior Statesman(TM) and officially retired from government service, Bill Clinton always manages to attract attention even when he's not around. This week's round of confirmation hearings was a case in point. 
