Repeal the 17th Amendment
Recently Arizona Governor Napolitano, a Democrat, gave her state of the state speech in which she declared that she would use the Arizona National Guard to control illegal immigration into the State of Arizona. The thrust of her speech, and her attitude, parallels that of Governor Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who has the same illegal immigration problem in California. Both Governors, many other elected officials and a growing percentage of the public believe that the federal government has all but abandoned its obligations under the U.S. Constitution to control illegal immigration from Mexico.
The illegal immigration issue, like all other federalism issues, has its origin in the passage of the 17th Amendment, which provided for the popular election of U.S. Senators. Originally, the federalism issues were well controlled. In the original design by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, there was a selection method through the state legislatures’ power to appoint (and remove) U.S. Senators. As such, the core of the federalism issues lies in the passage of the 17th Amendment, which abrogated the state legislatures’ right to appoint U.S. Senators in favor of popular election of those officials. This amendment also created a fundamental structural problem, which, irrespective of the political party in office, or the laws in effect at any one time, will result in unchecked federal conduct in every area. To state the problem precisely, at the present time, there are no checks and balances available to the states over federal power or over Congress itself in any area.
The reason for the passage of the 17th Amendment should be stated. The 17th Amendment was passed because of a procedural problem in the original concept and not because of a need to alter the balance of power. The procedural problem consisted of frequent deadlocks when the state legislatures were trying to select a senator. When deadlocked, a state would go without representation in the Senate. For instance, in the very first Congress, the State of New York went without representation in the Senate for three months. Additionally, numerous other problems resulted from the efforts to resolve individual deadlocks. The problem of deadlocked legislatures continued unabated from 1787 until 1913. The 17th amendment, calling for popular election of senators, fixed the procedural problems, but also inappropriately altered the balance of power. Instead, the 17th Amendment should have fixed the procedural problems and left the balance of power between the states and the federal government intact.
In my opinion, the 17th Amendment should be repealed. This would reinstate the states’ linkage to the federal political process and would, thereby, have the effect of elevating the present status of the state legislatures from that of lobbyists, to that of a partner in the federal political process. The state legislatures would then have the ability to decentralize power when appropriate and influence the exercise of federal power in all areas, including that of controlling illegal immigration. This structure would allow the flow of power between the states and the federal government to ebb and flow as the needs of our federal republic change. The existing relationship, combined with the effect of the Supremacy Clause, is guaranteed to concentrate power into the hands of the federal government with little or no hope of return. This is the fundamental problem with the present structure and thus justifies the repeal of the 17th Amendment.
Let us assume that the 17th Amendment was repealed. In that scenario, the state legislatures would have the ability to force their respective U.S. Senators to address the immigration problem or risk being “fired”. With that notion in mind, lets put the idea of repealing the 17th Amendment before every governor and state legislature in this country.
For more information, see http://www.articlev.com/.
Written by John MacMullin, via TheRealityCheck.org
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January 24th, 2006 at 11:13 am
Federals: Obligation, Power and the Law
I want to reiterate the view posted today from the California Conservative blog. Illegal emigration is the most paramount of domestic issues today, as the Arizona Congressman wrote in his recent book and interview on the Captain’s Quarters blog! I applaud the Arizona Governor for calling upon the National Guard to control border entry from Mexico, and believe that all of our Southwestern States’ Governors of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California should unitedly call upon the National Guard to patrol our great nation’s border with Mexico where over 6,000 people gain entry illegally every night, becoming a huge bain on our society and encouraging Islamofacists easy access towards our utter destruction all the while. Federal powers increase with the Patriot Act. But it has always been the responsibility of our federal government to keep our nation secure and to protect our borders with force when needed. There is redemption required from the federals given the awful example of the Democrat federals misusing power to annihilate its citizen’s rights when President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno ran wild murdering the Davidians burnt to death at the Democrats stake in Waco, Texas. The Davidians already announced their agreement and willingness to be taken captive by a Texas Ranger without need of force, a peaceful truce met by the angry illegitimate rush to judgement and execution by Clintonian federals eager to see how far they could go beyond their right to rule justly. All the while, Texas and the rest of the nation needed and still needs the federals to fulfill their Constitutional duties to protect our borders from those who would gain illegal entry, swelling the cancerous bain of our society that is filled with people who ignore the law for their own selfish gain.
As Beto Ochoa wrote, “where have all the Americans gone?” Federals, quit the celebrity fantasy and do your duty.
January 24th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
You’ll not likely see any action on this since Mexico is a cheap labor force. Follow the money…..
Another reason to limit immigration is simply the increasing burden of immigration and an expanding population upon our natural resources, both for survival (food, clean water, living space), for stewardship purposes (maintainence of viable natural and agricultural ecosystems), and for recreational purposes (increasing burdens on underfunded national parks, forests, etc). I was disappointed when Sierra Club (amongst others) failed to take a stand on this issue (though there was a mighty internal struggle about it). No surprise though, they have too many alliances with people who would be mighty put out by that stance, same as the RNC.
January 24th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Repealing the 17th Amendment?
No, no one’s talking about repealing the 19th Amendment. Go back to your beers… John at the California Conservative does think it’s time for the `17th Amendment.. the one that lets you vote for your Senators… to go away. The…
January 25th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
[...] Of course, the link to the California Conservative was really talking about illegal immigration, which I’m ambivalent to. [...]