Friday, January 21, 2011

U.S. Constitution Section 3

Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof [Modified by Amendment XVII], for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies [Modified by Amendment XVII].
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. James BurgessJanuary 21, 2011 at 9:12 PM

    The thing that I think about with the last 2 days of posts are that they put in the length of terms, why didn't they put in term limits. Oh I know why. Because they hardly paid them anything back then because they were part time and it was an honor to serve not a carreer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 21, 2011 at 9:48 PM

    First off I would like to say thank you for putting the original text that is put into the Constitution. Even though I was honored to watch the reading of the Constitution a few weeks ago I was kind of disappointed that they read the updated version.

    But this section has been butchered up to no end by the particular amendment that is cited twice in the paragraph. The Founders put an extra layer of checks in this section that is wholly unique to the Constitution. It gave the legislature the ability to "check" itself and counteract many of the popular outcries of the day.

    For example, in the original format the Senate was to be elected by the State Legislatures. Meaning that forever the Federal Government was dependent on and intertwined with the State Governments. If the Federal Government (House) wanted to pass a piece of legislation the States had to approve it by making sure it does not go against their own interest. That provided a check on the popular whims of the House.

    Absolute genius on the Founders part. It is just too bad that we have destroyed this beautiful section

    ReplyDelete
  3. James BurgessJanuary 21, 2011 at 10:20 PM

    I am not sure but is that ratifying? I do like that idea. What works well for some states work horribly for others.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJanuary 21, 2011 at 11:28 PM

    That's how the original Senate was composed. But with the passage of the 17th Amendment it took that away and made the Senate also susceptible to the popular whims of the people. And, it also made party politics worse and centralized special interest funding.

    Now Special Interests just have to make a donation to 1 person instead of several in the State Legislatures.

    Also the new Senate takes away power from you as an individual. Now if you want to get a particular candidate elected you have to travel all across your state. But before the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified you as an individual only had to worry about your Representative in the House and your State Rep./Senator...

    ReplyDelete
  5. James BurgessJanuary 22, 2011 at 7:54 PM

    I see that I have one of my favorite people to debate politics following this blog. Karim, I am glad to have you here. I hope you can breathe some life into this. I always enjoyed your comments, and rebutting them.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)