December, 2005

One More Round: The 17th and Constitutional Interpretation

by William A. Niskanen
The Conversation
December 19th, 2005

On the 17th Amendment To Prof. Amar: Let’s be careful about the phrase “state’s rights.” States do not have rights; only people have rights. State governments have only those powers authorized by their state constitutions and not prohibited to them by the federal Constitution. A repeal of the 17th Amendment would restore one state government [...]

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Call Me a Panglossian

by Alex Kozinski
The Conversation
December 18th, 2005

Okay, so call me Panglossian, but I do “judge the United States political order to be working well.” Which, of course, is not to say it’s perfect, or incapable of improvement. But I need not claim perfection for our system in order to resist calls for reform, unless they are very well supported indeed. In [...]

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