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I agree that understanding the Constitutional demands is a "matter of basic job competence for public servants." The Schneider and Ingram model is relevant because it explains that there are multiple inputs, or laws and statutes, that affect how public administrators use the law to enhance democratic values and advance policy goals (p. 81). In addition, the Schneider and Ingram framework also suggested that the outputs from the public administrators is feedback, which can shape future inputs (p. 81). This framework suggested that the law shapes the environment where public administrators work and how public administrators shape the legal environment, which means that public servants need to be aware of the law and how their actions fit within a constitutional framework. Lee and Rosenbloom alluded to this point, writing that public servants need to integrate constitutional law into their jobs (p. 15). Lee and Rosenbloom wrote that this integration into job performance can prove to be challenging because public servants need to balance public service utilitarianism with constitutional contractarianism (p. 15). While finding this balance can be difficult, according to Lee and Rosenbloom, knowledge of the constitutional demands allows public servants to further legitimize public administration and democratic governance. Christensen explained that public law should not be viewed as a set of constraints on public management, but rather, because of how public administration embodies politics, knowledge of public law provides public servants with a framework of tasks, organizational structure, funding and procedural rules (p. 606). In essence, public servants should be aware of the politics surrounding its agency and should know constitutional demands because it can aid them in decision-making and in public management.

Understanding the constitutional demands also has distinct advantages for public managers. Christensen, Goerdel and Nicholson-Crotty explained that public managers can become involved in litigation in an effort to fight for additional budgetary resources and use this context as a vehicle to mobilize public opinion for legal remedies to support or oppose the implementation of policies (p. 135). By knowing the constitutional limits of policy proposals, public servants can use their knowledge of the constitutional demands to empower their decision-making in selecting the best policy proposals. Local autonomy granted by Dillon's Rule and home rule also empowers state and local governments when the policy process is stalled at the federal level. This was apparent in the Godwin and Schroedel article where interest groups and local policy makers established communication links to take proactive steps to implement gun safety reforms. Today, California, New York and New Jersey are moving forward with proposalsLinks to an external site. at the state level on gun reform measures as negotiations on a package are still being debated. Public servants, especially at the local and state level, should be empowered by knowing the constitutional demands because they are granted the ability to move forward on policy proposals that progress their state and municipality, while knowing the particular problems affecting their state and communities.