Yet, even IF the 16th was passed successfully/correctly, it still tramples upon the 4th, 5th, 6th and 13th in its being and enforcement....
Yet, the whole of lawyers in D.C. and out can argue that, SOMEHOW, this is legal and Constitutional.
Social Security, Welfare, O’Care...all antithesis to the the Takings clause (in the least); again, seem as ‘legal’.
Still, these and more were passed in their day and, some would say, championed by the We the People of that time (where education may still have produced clear, logical thinking).
But, since the 1910’s, I recall nothing until the Civil Rights Act where ANY State attempted to assert its authority, and very few at that!
I suspect not even an Art. V would restore our Republic...its memory has too long passed from the minds of its people.
We, the people are just that - people, and not all that different from those that came long before we did.