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Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu David Luban david.luban at gmail.com Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu Compendium of posts on Hobby Lobby and related cases The Anti-Torture Memos: Balkinization Posts on Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, and OLC The Anti-Torture Memos (arranged by topic) Recent Posts Can there be too much democracy? Yes.
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Thursday, December 18, 2008
Can there be too much democracy? Yes.
Sandy Levinson
John Nichols has a blogpost for the Nation, a magazine I have written for and (therefore?) much admire. He, too, is upset by the bandwagon that is developing behind the candidacy of Caroline Kennedy to succeed Hillary Clinton in the Senate. He writes: The problem is not Caroline Kennedy, or Andrew Cuomo for that matter. It's not Rod Blagojevich or Paterson. It's the fact that governors get to appoint senators. When a U.S. House seat goes vacant -- due to death or resignation -- the Constitution requires that a special election be held. When a U.S. Senate seat goes vacant, a Constitutional loophole allows governors in most states to start wheeling and dealing. It's a lousy loophole. Governors should not be in the business of appointing senators, be they Kennedys, Cuomos, Smiths or Jones. The people should make the pick. The Constitution should be amended to require that all Senate vacancies be filled by special elections.....
Comments:
The 17th Amendment doesn't empower Governors to appoint Senators, it just permits the state legislatures to so empower them if they choose. Since it is the states that have to incur the loss of representation while waiting for a special election to fill a vacancy, it makes sense that it be left up to them to balance that loss with the risks of temporary appointments.
While I agree that continuity of Congress is a serious issue, it doesn't really have much to do with the subject at hand. One could support empowering Governors to appoint Members of Congress in case of a catastrophic event without temporary appointments under normal circumstances.
Amusingly enough, this scenario was already covered by John Clancy in Debt of Honor, and in the following book, it was explained to him by his political mentor that the senatorial appointment ability allowed him to restaff the Cabinet relatively quickly in case of disaster.
Sometimes, fiction is the best place to find understanding of the outliers.
Can there be too much democracy?
Yes. And the far more interesting and edifying discussion of this problem was laid out by Aristotle quite some time ago. That's a thread worth taking up, especially for us liberal types.
I think it’s important to point out that there is a big difference in most cases between holding a special election in a single congressional district and holding a special election for a whole state, especially a populous state such as Illinois or New York.
The whole issue would not be a problem if the governors would simply appoint the most qualified person they could find, without regard for political considerations. Not that that is ever going to happen.
The irony of course is that the Senate itself is by far the most undemocratic body with real power in the entire Western world. Indeed, its very existence makes me seriously question whether the United States federal government can properly be characterized as a democracy. I as a Californian am 70 times less represented than a person in Wyoming in the most significant house of the federal legislature.
So, if we are going to be worrying about democracy and the US Senate, interim gubernatorial appointment to that body are the last thing I would be thinking about . . .
Enough with the intellectual and procedural BS! Appointments of politicians is as unAmerican as my feeble dense mind can comprehend. But please don't let me upset your lofty pontifications.
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