Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

Institutions Worthy of Our Parties: Should the U.S. Switch to a Parliamentary System?

parliament-house

Rick Hasen has a really interesting paper up discussing partisan polarization and the possibility of changing the Constitution to deal with it. (And you should really read Jonathan Bernstein's response, too.) Hasen starts off by asking whether we should be considering moving toward a more parliamentary style of government. It's a fair question. We have what looks like a serious mismatch between our parties and our governing institutions. We live in an era of sharply distinct, internally disciplined, programmatic parties with very different visions of how the nation should be run. That's ... Read More

Talmud, Internet Unlock James Madison

James Madison’s Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 has never been a bestseller. Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, randomly flips open his own copy of a published edition to page 129 and starts reading aloud to illustrate why. “Mr. Randolph's plan,” Madison wrote, “as reported from the Committee June 13 being before the house, the 1. propos: ‘that a Natl. Govt. ought to be established consisting &c.’ being taken up.” For one, this stuff doesn’t translate out loud very well. The book continues like this for some 600 ... Read More

The Fear of a Sharia Planet

The “supremacy clause” of the U.S. Constitution is one of the first things taught in many first-year law school courses. Article VI, Clause 2 states quite clearly that the “Constitution and the laws of the United States … shall be the supreme law of the land” and that no other law (foreign or domestic) can pre-empt or supersede it. While that seems pretty clear, some national conservative political figures have convinced more than a dozen American states that “Sharia,” or Islamic law, is somehow on the verge of toppling the American way of law. While that’s unlikely, some ... Read More

Constitutionality Is in the Eye of the Beholder

When the 112th Congress convenes this week, Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives plans to roll out a new rule: Every piece of legislation considered this session — no matter how mundane — must be submitted alongside a statement citing the specific authority in the Constitution that gives Congress power to enact the law. The idea, championed by the Tea Party and central to the GOP’s "Pledge to America," is a not-so-subtle reference to last year’s health care bill. The 111th Congress, critics complained, regularly exceeded its constitutional authority. And ... Read More

Original Republicans Were Cool With Anchor Babies

Birthright citizenship has bounded from fringe obsession to the prime-time news hour in the span of just a few weeks. Immigration opponents want to repeal the right, nestled in the Constitution since 1868, with a new amendment. "I think it's worth considering," House Minority Leader John Boehner said on last week's Meet the Press, cementing the idea's sudden status as a straight-faced topic of debate in Washington. His supporters say birthright citizenship invites immigrants to come here and rewards their illegal behavior once they've made it across the border. Their logic also rests ... Read More

Re-establish Respect for the Constitutional Separation of Powers

Despite repeated assertions by both Barack Obama and John McCain that their policies would differ significantly from those of the previous administration, virtually no attention was paid during the campaign to the worst feature of the Bush presidency: the determined undermining of America's constitutional framework. In fact, the issue was missing from congressional races as well, even though many of the members of Congress who were seeking re-election had acquiesced in the unconstitutional amassing of executive power. If this is to truly be a new beginning — a chance to address the ... Read More