I've never heard a strict-constructionist-framers-intentionalist explain what the intent was behind the amendment procedure. Why do you think they wrote that in there? And since they did, do you really think they didn't intend for us to use it?
Was it a misuse of the amendment procedure to abolish slavery in the 13th Amendment? To grant the vote to people other than white men in the 15th and 19th Amendments? Was it a violation of all we hold sacred to limit the President to two terms in the 22nd? Are you still hopping mad about giving Washington DC representation in the Electoral College like those treasonous bastards did in the 23rd?
Not a single one of those things could have been foreseen by the framers. And that last one is a good example. DC wasn't the residential center that it is today when the constitution was written. There really weren't civilian residents there to represent, in any substantial numbers. But times (like they do) changed. That change required a change in the makeup of the body intended to represent the populace in electing their President. So the amendment procedure was used to keep the document (gasp)
alive and relevant.
There are plenty of DC residents lobbying for a constitutional amendment to give DC representation in Congress. Would that violate the framer's precious intent? Did they intend to have a major US city have no representation? They certainly didn't say anything about DC having congressional representation in the document they wrote! They must have intended that people living in DC have no representation, then! Why do you think they intended that? It couldn't possibly be that their foresight was limited and they knew it and so gave us the power to adapt their document, could it?
IMO being literal and about the Constitution is almost as ridiculous as being literal about the Bible, and leads to nearly as nonsensical outcomes.
---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Plan9
Okay, who's gonna pick the cotton?
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Whoever it is, you're gonna have to pay for their health insurance!