Alabama GOP Demands that Shelby Retract Support from Hagel

The Steering Committee of the Alabama Republican Party has taken the rare step of officially demanding that one of the state’s two GOP U.S. Senators change a publicly announced position in a high-profile Washington battle. Specifically, the state party leaders have passed a resolution demanding that Sen. Richard Shelby “reconsider and reverse his decision to support Senator [Chuck] Hagel to be Secretary of Defense.” The resolution, passed early this afternoon, blasts Hagel for statements “favorable toward” countries “that we believe to be enemies of the United States of America,” and also criticizes him for “not being a supporter of Israel, the only dependable ally the United States of America has in that part of the world.” It notes, too, that “many Alabama citizens have expressed outrage at Senator Shelby’s decision.”

This is big stuff. Sen. Shelby is a powerful politician, and the state party long has been supportive of him. But his support of Hagel seems to really have created a backlash.

“It has been an outpouring from people across the state,” State Republican Chairman Bill Armistead told me. “There have been phone calls from a lot of people, plus we’ve all been approached by people we know at churches and in our communities. I haven’t seen anything this strong in opposition to something done by one of our representatives in Congress in a long time.”

(Armistead stressed that this does not indicate opposition to Shelby in general, but only that it was very strong opposition to this one decision.)

I long ago concluded that the 17th could never be repealed because the senate would not permit it. They enjoy their privilege of being free agents, not beholden to their state and its people.

However, there is an alternative, that duplicates the original senate to a great extent, and restores the balance between the federal government and the states.

Each year the federal district courts send some 8,000 cases to the Supreme Court, which can hear only a few dozen, representing a huge bottleneck in the judicial system.

On these grounds, a constitutional amendment could create a subordinate court, *not* a federal court, but a court composed of judges appointed specifically by the state legislatures. Two judges per state, on concurrent terms with their US senators.

Because this Second Court of the United States would not be a federal court, it does not determine the constitutionality of laws, a job for the federal courts. Instead it first determines if a law being appealed to the Supreme Court is in reality a constitutional issue, or should be returned to the state of origin for decision.

That is, it is a jurisdictional court. And one large enough to hear 8,000 federal district court cases over the course of a year. Not to determine their constitutionality, but to decide whether or not their are federal, not state issues involved.

Importantly, these cases would continue on to the SCOTUS, but if the SCOTUS refused to hear them, the jurisdictional decision of the Second Court would come into effect, *instead* of, by default, the decision of the federal district courts. *Only if* the Second Court decided a federal issue was indeed involved, would the case then revert to the decision of the federal district court.

This would give the states as a group the ability to “de-federalize” cases that were originally the prerogative of the states, but had been “federalized” by any one of hundreds of federal judges.

In doing so, this would strip the federal judiciary of much of its legislating from the bench.

The other purpose of the Second Court would be original jurisdiction over all lawsuits between the federal government and the states. So instead of such cases taking many years, through several layers of appeals, even though they can only definitively be decided by the SCOTUS, the *states* would have first crack at such lawsuits.

For example, right now, dozens of states would be happy to join a lawsuit to overturn Obamacare in its entirety. And they could likely decide (as a safe equivalent to a constitutional convention), to do so.

Because, and this is a zinger, if two-thirds of this court agreed to a decision, it would be in effect the number of states needed to call a constitutional convention. And if three quarters of the judges rejected a federal power grab, it would have the effective force of a constitutional amendment.

That is, the states would have a means to overrule congress, the president, and the judiciary, without the risks inherent in a constitutional convention.

We went over all of that in those aforementioned threads. What the Founders hoped would happen with such a Senate chosen by state legislators simply didn’t (that was proven out by the mid-19th century). Removing the vote from the people and placing it back in their hands won’t do anything but make them even more insulated from their actions than before (and would instantly make 40 Senators perpetually Democrat in non-Republican states, freeing them up to elect the most far-left members imaginable — complemented by a coterie of liberal RINOs as the “Conservative” opposition). The biggest argument, that it would result in more pro-states rights Conservatives, was thoroughly debunked.

If I were a Democrat or liberal Republican, I’d want repeal of the 17th. It would make my job a helluva lot easier at getting elected. I’d only have to focus my attention on bribing, coercing and manipulating the members of the legislature (what was pretty much being done post-mid-19th century).

As for state legs appointing judges, I’d be just as wary. Again, you’d have 20 states that would NEVER appoint non-Democrats (hence, safe moonbat in the mode of the 9th “Circus”). Now you might get some Conservative judges in those GOP states, but only by accident, as said jobs would be used as a reward for party loyalists (party, not ideology).

Regardless, the entire governmental system as it is is very messed up.

Every complaint you register as a problem exists now, with many even worse. Senators as national representatives only represent corporations and PACs. The wealthy ones buy seats.

I will also agree that any system will eventually be corrupted; but in this case, it is worth the effort to “de-nationalize” senators, if solely to shift federal power back to the individual states. Instead of their living in Washington for 5 years and six months, at least it would force them to return to their home states every now and then.

The assumption of the founding fathers was never than men are good, or that men are bad or evil; just that men are weak. It is an axiom that requires the people to keep the government system somewhat in flux.

At the time of the Alaska purchase, it has been alleged that congressmen and senators had been bribed to 300% of their total number. Things change.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.