An even worse constitution than the US: California

[Sean Wilson]

... I am having a difficult time grasping the logic of this.

1. crisis plus tough rule of procedure = what? 

They are six votes shy. What is it that should be "taught" to students?

(a) how to negotiate better
(b) how not to be in a condition worse than other states (economics)
(c) how not to be too liberal for too long
(d) how to really cut the budget (let it crash)
(e) how to change political composition (throw it to the electorate in a crisis and let them sweep in the new bums)
(f) how to love bare and not super majorities
(g) how to make too much of majority election returns (no minority rights?)
(h) how to have jurisprudence that allows for suspension of rules in times of immense severity ("fundamentalism")
(i) how to take all budgeting issues away from legislatures who routinely screw it up and put it in the hands of court supervised receivers (ooh, is there a a Hamiltonian in the house?)
(j) how the legislative institutions are the most unpopular and failing in the time we live (look at the opinion polls)
(k) how to give a line item veto to the executive
(l) how to get stimulus money to republican governors
(m)  how to federalize another area of life, and why "state's rights" is bad
(n) how it is bad when democrats can't get what they want
(o) how a state with the 7th largest economy in the world has really big numbers in the budget
(p) how poor states with balanced budgets have only a fraction of the benefits of California life, no matter their constitution
(q) how states with better constitutional rules really are not much better off when capitalism fails
(r) how this won't affect the Rose Bowl 
       
 
Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq. 
Assistant Professor
Wright State University
New Website: http://seanwilson.org
Daily Visitors: http://seanwilson.org/homepagelucy.html
SSRN papers: http://ssrn.com/author=596860




________________________________
From: Sanford Levinson <SLevinson at law.utexas.edu>
To: Janet Alexander <jca at stanford.edu>; Richard Kay <Richard.Kay at law.uconn.edu>; CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu; conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 6:14:44 PM
Subject: RE: An even worse constitution than the US: California


This was just posted on the NYTimes site.  A tribute to constitutional (and ideological) rigidity.  So, when we teach “constitutional law,” should we make our students aware of the importance of such things as voting rules (and amendment processes)?  
 
California Struggles to Close a Projected $41 Billion Deficit 
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER


      
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