A Flaw in the Design

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides for the orderly succession, temporary or permanent, of the President, due to vacancy or disability.  It was prompted in part by the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.  The budget impasse of 2011 perhaps should prompt us to provide the equivalent in Minnesota's Constitution.

Without naming names, what if a Governor's mental state or impeachable conduct were to result in a shutdown that could not be resolved until the official reconvening of the Legislature over six months later?

Without picking sides, let me expand further.  We scoffed last year when someone proposed that Legislative leaders should be able to call a Special Session.  We contend that serving in the Legislature should be a part time position as it once was, but are the pundits right, that it is a full time position these days?  As such, do artificial deadlines like the Constitution limits on session dates now do more harm than good?  Haste has made waste in the past, like the infamous Health Impact Fee.

When facing an impasse like today, the inability of the Legislature to convene can play both ways.  The Legislature can contend they're powerless unless the Governor relents.  The Governor can and usually does hold out for a priori agreement before calling a Special Session, since once called, the Legislature sets the agenda, including adjournment.  Either way, what dialog happens is not in the open where it belongs.

As long as I'm solving all the world's problems, let me add another word: unicameral.  The Great Compromise that almost every state copied to create dual chamber Legislatures, including Minnesota: is it worth the trouble?  At its best, it makes legislating more difficult, usually a good thing.  At its worst, it creates impasses of its own without the Governor's help.  Or maybe the worst is that too much legislation winds up being written in conference committees.  Or maybe that is provides too much cover on important matters, each half conveniently blaming the other?

The current situation may be resolved in time as Mike Hatch predicted on Almanac tonight (6/17).  But if it drags on, maybe still more Constitutional Amendments should be considered in 2012.

 

Comments

[Hiram]

"what if a Governor's mental state or impeachable conduct were to result in a shutdown that could not be resolved until the official reconvening of the Legislature over six months later?"

We would have to wait the six months, I guess.

By the way, I don't know if I have ever scoffed at the idea that the legislature should be able to call itself into session. I just note that it can't; something everyone down in the capitol should perhaps take more to heart than they do when they drone on in endless in endless committee meetings. And both parties have been guilty of this. In this session and in the last, the decision of the majority parties to enact their budget legislation late in the session greatly hampered the prospect of negotiations and turned over a great deal of what could be legislative power to the governor.

[Hiram]

As for a unicameral legislature, I am very open to the idea. I believe, in fact, that the U.S. Senate should be reformed on the current House of Lords model. Senators should be appointed, not elected, and they should hold their seats for life. And they should have all legislative power taken away from them, and serve as an advisory body only.

State governments were modeled after the federal government, but the reason the federal congress has two houses, to protect the power of small states and preserve the institution of slavery, are not now and never were relevant to the states.

[Speed Gibson]

Al Franken serving forever in the Senate? Scary.

[Hiram]

By the way, I just watched Friday's Almanac session. I found nothing untruthful or that surprising about anything he said with respect to the legal situation pertaining to the shutdown. He was giving us the disinterested lawyer point of view. Knaak, and I assume Winkler and Nienow were acting as advocates, and their views can be discounted as a prediction of what's likely to happen.

The courts will not allow Stillwater prison to be opened as a consequence of the shutdown.