CLARITY Act Could Still Pass — One Lawyer Found the Constitutional Tool Trump Can Use To Save the Bill

With nine days remaining before the Senate leaves for its August recess, the CLARITY Act’s chances of becoming law this year have slipped to 38% on prediction market Polymarket — and the votes needed to advance the bill still are not secured. But a lawyer and crypto advocate has surfaced a constitutional argument that could change the equation entirely, and it runs directly through President Trump.

The Constitutional Tool Nobody Is Talking About 

James Murphy, known in the crypto legal community as MetaLawMan, posted on X Monday arguing that Trump has the authority under the US Constitution to call the Senate back into session even after the August recess begins. 

The provision, Murphy said, is found in Article II, Section 3, which gives the president the power to convene either or both chambers of Congress on extraordinary occasions. 

This is not a new or untested interpretation. Murphy pointed to a 1989 legal opinion from the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel that explicitly confirmed the president can exercise this authority during an intra-session break — including a planned August recess. 

Murphy argues that Trump should use that authority to keep the Senate in session until votes are taken on the CLARITY Act. The president cannot force senators to vote a particular way, Murphy acknowledged, but he can require them to stay in Washington until they cast their votes.

Whether that pressure would move the remaining votes is far from certain. According to Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America, the bill does not currently have the 60 votes needed to advance, and Senate Republicans are spending this week working to shore up support across several unresolved areas, including ethics language and DeFi provisions. 

CLARITY Act as of Monday 

Terrett reported that seven key Democratic negotiators said last week’s updated CLARITY Act draft text fell short — and their support remains conditional on changes that have not yet been agreed.

The Republican side of the ledger is not settled either. With Senator Mitch McConnell expected to remain absent, the GOP has little margin for defections. Senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul — both of whom voted against the GENIUS Act last year — remain uncertain. A single Republican defection narrows the path to 60 votes even further.

One development from Friday offered modest encouragement. The National Fraternal Order of Police, which had previously raised concerns about the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provision, formally endorsed the latest version of the CLARITY Act in a letter to Senate Banking Committee leaders. 

The FOP said revised language in the BRCA section — which shields certain non-custodial software developers from money-transmitter classification — does not limit law enforcement’s ability to investigate or prosecute crypto crimes, and praised the bill’s broader enforcement provisions. 

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at approximately $65,100 on Monday, up roughly 1.6% from Sunday’s open, as easing US-Iran tensions and improving Fed rate expectations lifted sentiment across crypto markets. 

Featured image generated with OpenArt.