Here's a right interesting thought
Okay, so they got me reading The Volokh Conspiracy, and I have to admit it's pretty good. ZenPundit will have some company as soon as I have a moment.
This morning I see a cute thing:
Oh, and don't even dream of asking whether the federal government's civil war debt should have been considered valid. After all, as section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment tells us, "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."'
My favorite amendments are numbers nine (which no one ever wants to discuss), thirteen, and fifteen. I like number fourteen as well, but it's been twisted and tortured until its intent barely adheres to it anymore. But here comes the interesting thing, which I'd probably never thought of if I had eaten breakfast and therefore been in a nicer mood. I draw your attention to Section 2 of Amendment XIV, the very amendment the SCOTUS used to scuttle the recount in Florida:
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Now, given that Florida, by settling a suit brought by the NAACP admitted they wrongfully prevented great numbers of people from voting, and given that the DOJ has pressed its own suit along the same lines, shouldn't Florida be losing some representation in Congress?
Just a thought…
[Listening to: Stir It Up - Bob Marley and The Wailers]
posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/20/2003 10:39:37 AM |
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