Skip to main content

Must be Constitutional if Orrin Says it Is!

Rather than wait for a couple of years, when Utah is a cinch to gain an additional seat in the US House of Representatives, a lot of people are putting themselves in all sorts of contorted positions to claim that it would be constitutional to give Utah a seat right now.

The only way to make it Constitutional is to pass a Constitutional amendment. It's a bit ironic that Orrin Hatch belongs to a church, one of whose prophets said that its priesthood leaders would be part of the group that saves the Constitution from destruction, but he uses a specious argument to unmask his impatience at getting Utah a fourth seat in the House of Representatives and further diluting the meaning of the Constitution.

Hatch noted that Congress has opted to collect federal taxes from D.C. residents and allows the federal court to have jurisdiction over the district, even though the Constitution says these actions are allowed for "states."

"The question is whether the fact that the District is not a state trumps Congress' legislative authority," Hatch said. "Congressional action and judicial precedent throughout American history suggest that the answer is no."


The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution made it so that the District of Columbia could choose electors for President and Vice President. I'm not sure, then, if it took an amendment for that, how it wouldn't require a similar amendment to allow DC to have a representative in Congress.

I heard the other morning that some people think that anyone who disagrees that DC should get a representative is a racist, because most DC residents are black. Hmmm. Constitution be damned. Course I've been accused of being a racist before by people who don't understand that three/fifths thingy in the Constitution.

I've also heard it said that this is a balanced, non-political solution--to give the most republican state in the Union a Republican seat and DC a surely democratic seat. In reality, this is the most political "solution" I can think of. How it can be considered a solution, I'm not sure. The only two non-political solutions are (1) be patient until the next census, and (2) amend the Constitution.

Utah will most assuredly get another seat in the US House as a result of the next census. Orrin Hatch needs to be put out to pasture. If he's leading the vanguard of further ignoring the constitution, he needs to be defeated in his next election.

Comments

  1. I concur with your analysis.

    It concerns me that the Honorable Senator Hatch has made it clear that he would like to become U.S. Attorney General when Mr. Gonzales finally goes down, as seems likely to eventually occur.

    Part of me is giddy at the prospect of getting some fresh blood in Utah's senate delegation. But on the other hand, if the good senator so lightly dismisses important elements of the U.S. Constitution, would he be a good choice for Attorney General? Although he would have less than two years, he could still do some serious damage.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are right on except that Senator Hatch should have been defeated in the last election. Not only would he roll over the constitution on this, but he wants to dilute the constitution with his pet flag burning amendment.

    If he could become the AG that would be great, I really don't think that the new AG (whoever it is) will be able to do much before the Bush term is over. Certainly removing Hatch as an incumbent would do more good than any harm he could do in a 18 months of being AG.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with both of you. I think I probably voted for Hatch once or twice long ago, but I can't remember when. It might be better to get him out of the Senate with a trial period so that we could see how much improved we would be with someone else there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scrap the constitution.... It's antiquated anyway. It was a sexist, racist, male dominated document that only protects men....

    I hope that you all note the tongue in cheek nature of these comments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The size of the House of Representatives has never before required a Constitutional Amendment -- why would it require one now?

    What provision of the Constitution would stand in the way of this proposed law? I can't think of any.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting. If you have a Google/Blogger account, to be apprised of ongoing comment activity on this article, please click the "Subscribe" link below.

Popular posts from this blog

Red Clothing and Resurrection: Jesus Christ's Second Coming

The scriptures teach that when Christ comes again to the earth, that he will be wearing red apparel. Why red ? They also teach that at Christ's coming, many of the dead will become resurrected. Will this only include members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Not by a long shot, no matter what some Mormon might tell you.

To Have the Compassion of an Ogre

At least when it comes to using government as a weapon of compassion, I have the compassion of the ogre. I will explain below why I think government cannot and should not be in the business of compassion. The force of government has caused many people to show less compassion to their fellow men. On the other hand, some of the best things happen when government is not compassionate. In such circumstances, individuals personally begin to display more compassion. One such instance of this happened recently in Utah when the governor asked the legislature to convene a special session in order to (among other things) provide special monies to pay for dental care for the disabled . If they didn't fund the governor's compassion project, it would make the legislators look even more heartless in a year where the budget surplus was projected to be at least $150 million. In spite of these political odds, the legislature did not grant the $2 million that 40,000 members of the disabled

The Legend of Enkidu and Shamhat: Wait!...Did I just Read About Adam and Eve???

The story of Enkidu and Shamhat seems similar to that of Adam and Eve.  See what similarities you can find in my description of the story of Enkidu, Shamhat, and Enkidu's alter-ego, Gilgamesh below.