Posted on 01/05/2019 5:13:44 AM PST by Impy
In 1995, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared, “Sometime in the next century the United States is going to have to address the question of apportionment in the Senate.” Perhaps that time has come. Today the voting power of a citizen in Wyoming, the smallest state in terms of population, is about 67 times that of a citizen in the largest state of California, and the disparities among the states are only increasing. The situation is untenable.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Article V of the Constitution has an entrenched clause stating no amendment can be made depriving a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without it's consent. That means you amend it so every state has 3 Senators, or 1, or 10, but any such amendment that would give one state more Senators than another would require ratification by every state.
This clown, who is a PROFESSOR of "Legal Studies" (proctology?) at the University of PA suggests
1)Well Article V just applies to amendments so Congress can just pass a law giving Cali more Senators (whut?).
2)Because voting rights amendments were ratified the states have already given "consent" to this previously unconsidered proposal and/or Congress would have carte blache to creatively "enforce" them by giving Cali 12 Senators.
3)Maybe "equal suffrage" means something else.
This is literally the dumbest crap I've ever read.
Their more realistic plot to dick around with the Senate is to admit new states (Washington DC, Puerto Rico, USVI?)
This is now a major issue on the "intellectual" left.
The late Senator Moynihan suggested big states could break up, which I'm certain state governments would be loathe to do.
Ping
I wonder if they could get 38 state legislatures to go along with this idea.
This is just one more Obama radical objecting to our Constitution and form of government. There is no chance that our nation would sustain itself as a direct “democracy” as it would be a socialist dictatorship, operating only until they ran out of other people’s money.
Reading the article, his plan is to run it through congress and then hope for enough Supreme Court justifies who believe the Constitution is "malleable" (as they did with Obamacare) to just rubber-stamp it as good to go.
No constitutional amendment needed.
Justices!
Just one more way to try to install BAT GUANO CRAZY DEMs as our permanent Overlords. Need get FEDS out of all the unconstitutional crap they do.
50, read my comment below the article. Giving one state more Senators would require approval from every state, which is why they are coming up with nutty ideas, 38 would be hard enough but they know they would never get Wyoming or North Dakota to consent to being made irrelevant in Congress.
Yeah. This would work to have the country split into 50 countries. Or perhaps 5-10 countries comprised of 5-10 states each.
If they want California to have 12 senators, they can split California up into 6 states.
Otherwise they can go pound sand!
Why is this a barf alert? There are millions of Republicans in California who have no representation in the Senate. Same is true in I’ll and NY. Split up these huge -mostly blue - states for purposes of senate representation, so their voiceless conservative citizens can have their own senators
What they’re saying is, the US Constitution is unconstitutional.
The 17th Amendment needs to be repealed.
That Amendment damaged States’ rights and was the beginning of unlimited Federal power over the States.
Read the article. The plan doesn't require amending the constitution. It requires five activist justices on the Supreme Court.
People fail to realize or don’t understand that the Senate is for states - not individuals.
More activist judges? No. It would require full out fascist-Marxist judges.
[ The 17th Amendment needs to be repealed.
That Amendment damaged States’ rights and was the beginning of unlimited Federal power over the States. ]
I would add the 19th and the 16th while we are at but the 17th is damned fine start!
That’s what the House is supposed to be for. But CA with their “jungle primaries” subverted that.
The dims will pack SCOTUS, given a chance. After Trump, all bets are off.
[ People fail to realize or don’t understand that the Senate is for states - not individuals. ]
Senators are SUPPOSED to be the AMBASSADORS of the STATE LEGISLATIVE BODIES!
Not little “State SUPER representatives”....
That is what the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES is FOR!
Might as well just abolish the god damned senate and add two more rep seats for each state..... ( grumbles )
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