I don’t know if a party led by a guy who’s convinced he’s the victim of an immense vote-rigging conspiracy which he can’t prove should want to set mental qualifications for the presidency.

But this is a fine example of the GOP agenda, such as it is, circa 2022. It’s one percent earnest solution to a potential problem, 99 percent own-the-libs trolling.

I do think it’d be funny, though, if a Republican House and Senate passed a bill ordering Biden to prove that he’s not a few cards short of a deck and then Biden had to decide whether to veto it. A veto wouldn’t be a great look!

Sen. Roger Marshall says that if Republicans win the majority in House and Senate, they'll look at passing legislation forcing Biden to take an annual cognitive test pic.twitter.com/BNunLogGBI

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 13, 2022

What if we compromise and just have Biden repeatedly boast about his ability to identify “person, woman, man, camera, TV” to anyone who’ll listen? That’s the hallmark of a steel-trap mind in top working order.

One obvious question about this proposed bill, assuming Roger Marshall is even slightly serious about passing it, is who would administer the cognitive test? A doctor of the president’s choosing or a doctor of Congress’s choosing? Because, given the intensely bitter partisanship of our times, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard for Dems to find doctors who’d pass Biden no matter what and for Republicans to find ones who’d fail him no matter what.

If he did fail, what then? Would it be left to his cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment? Would Congress move to impeach? What if Biden and his doctors assured the public that there’s some medication he can take to shore up his focus?

What about the headline “PRESIDENT FAILS COGNITIVE TEST”? What sort of consequences do we think might flow from that abroad once Moscow and Beijing hear of it? Marshall makes a point of saying that Biden’s mental acuity is a matter of national security, which is true. But if his acuity isn’t as sharp as it should be, publicizing that fact would also be dangerous for national security.

And if we’re demanding that the president prove he’s cognitively fit for office, there’s no reason we shouldn’t also ask members of Congress and the Supreme Court to prove their fitness with annual exams. Congress has a say in national security too, after all, and the Court may be asked to adjudicate disputes about natsec matters. Unless the claim is that Biden’s senescence makes him more likely to order a nuclear strike — which I don’t think I’ve heard anyone allege, ever — then it’s silly to apply a cognitive test to only one branch of government.

A law like the one described by Marshall would be interesting from a constitutional standpoint. Would SCOTUS allow Congress to add a de facto qualification for office to the presidency — passing a cognitive test — via a simple statute rather than a constitutional amendment? I think it would be legal to do so since failing the test wouldn’t mean automatic disqualification. It would just be … really embarrassing for Biden and create a major crisis as to next steps. Likewise, the Court might reason that the 25th Amendment invests the cabinet, not Congress, with the power to police the president’s personal fitness. If the cabinet suspects that Biden is no longer fit, it could demand that he get tested and threaten to transfer power to Kamala Harris if he refuses. Separation-of-powers concerns might also steer the Court towards preferring that the executive branch, not the legislature, address questions of the president’s fitness.

But hey. If Congress is convinced that Biden’s not all there, they can always impeach and try to remove. “Old and frail” isn’t thought of as a high crime or misdemeanor last I checked, but SCOTUS isn’t going to wade into that constitutional morass and tell Congress how it can and can’t use its impeachment power. The new GOP House could tell Biden, presumably, “Get a cognitive test or we’ll impeach,” and then follow through if he refuses.

Although that would be a bad, bad precedent in a hyperpartisan age. Future House majorities could then make any demand they want of the president and casually impeach him when he declines to comply.

I’m sure it’ll be fine. We’re led by smart, sober, serious people who are certainly concerned with the health of the country instead of pandering to their own bases, after all.