This coming week, on Thursday and Friday, I will be doing three different two talks in New York City, two at NYU Law School, and one at Columbia Law School. On Thursday, April 11, from 12:10 to about 1:10, Columbia law Professor Theodore Shaw and I will be debating affirmative action and the Supreme Court’s […]
Archive | 17th Amendment
Debating Repeal of the 17th Amendment
The Federalist Society has published an exchange between co-blogger Todd Zywicki and myself on the question of whether the 17th Amendment should be repealed. Todd argues that repeal would help reestablish necessary limits on federal power. I contend that it would have little effect, and especially would not lead to a net reduction in federal […]
Would Repeal of the 17th Amendment Help Limit Federal Power?
In a recent post and a forthcoming National Review article, co-blogger Todd Zywicki argues that repealing the Seventeenth Amendment would be an important step towards protecting federalism and limiting federal power. Todd is one of the leading academic experts on the Seventeenth Amendment. But I respectfully disagree with him on this point. I outlined my […]
Would Repealing the Seventeenth Amendment Curb Federal Power?
Many conservatives and libertarians believe that the 1913 adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment – which requires that senators be elected by popular vote, rather than by state legislatures – was a great mistake that led to a vast expansion of federal power. As Gene Healey puts it in a recent op ed, they assert that […]