State Legislature Choosing Presidential Electors

[John_Mace]

@Jonathan Chance

I don’t have a constitutional problem with the issue…even if it requires an amending of the state constitution in question.

What I think WOULD happen is a quick repeal via the ballot box of the representatives who pushed it through. Some things, once assigned, are hard to take back.

I agree 100%.

[ElvisL1ves]

@Bricker

No…This scenario is not a wild one; it was discussed during the Florida 2000 election debacle.

No? Looks like you do want to discuss Florida 2000 again then, your protest that this is another of your (false) hypotheticals notwithstanding. I’ll ask again: Why?

The results in 2000 …had nothing to do with the state legislature. So what actually ended up happening in Florida is not really relevant.

Is your memory that short? The legislature was gearing up to do precisely that - appoint their own electors, the state constitution and Supreme Court be damned. But no, that’s only a hypothetical. :rolleyes:

Since you asked for a state constitution for my mythical state, I gave you one that, so far as i can tell, is silent on any issue that would be relevant to this question.

So you not only want to discuss a claimed hypothetical, you want to eliminate the only basis upon which it could be answered. You’re kidding only yourself.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Yep. I hate to inject politics into what should be a dry and theoretical issue but there it is.

You wanna get in the mud you’re gonna get dirty. There are very few items that could boil over into a full-fledged ‘throw the bastards out’ mentality but I’m pretty certain that would be one of them.

[Gfactor]

@Bricker

I wonder if Congress couldn’t pass a direct law mandating popular votes for electors in states… but that’s not really what I was getting at. It’s not congressional action, but federal judiciary action, that intrigues me here.

Such a provision would run smack into Article II, section 1, wouldn’t it?

*Cf., * Tenth Amendment

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

But see, http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment10/02.html#4 (Tenth Amendment law is complicated).

[Bricker]

@ElvisL1ves

No? Looks like you do want to discuss Florida 2000 again then, your protest that this is another of your (false) hypotheticals notwithstanding. I’ll ask again: Why?

Is your memory that short? The legislature was gearing up to do precisely that - appoint their own electors, the state constitution and Supreme Court be damned. But no, that’s only a hypothetical. :rolleyes:

So you not only want to discuss a claimed hypothetical, you want to eliminate the only basis upon which it could be answered. You’re kidding only yourself.

Again you refer to the state constitution. I’ve given you a link to it. Where does it address this topic?

[Gfactor]

A decent resource on Congressional authority to regulate presidential elections.

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/politics/election/rl30747.pdf

and here is a pretty good article discussing the single case that addresses the issue of the state legislature’s authority vis-à-vis electors.

http://www.bestfrauds.com/articles/20001213.html