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Headline: In 1868, Congress placed the harsh penalty of losing congressional representation of any state who placed limitations on US citizen's right to vote. Let's look at the least used Section of the most important Amendment (The 14th Amendment).
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While the Reduction Clause portion of Section 2 of the 14th Amendment is the most eye catching part of Section 2, I would contend that it isn't the most important. I would instead award that honor to the words "shall" and "abridge".
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First, In the case of Section two x is where "abridge" comes in and y is the penalty, the Reduction Clause.
Now, the fun part, the word "abridge" has 3 potential effects:
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Now, the fun part, the word "abridge" has 3 potential effects:
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1) Any state law or regulation that has the effect of preventing US citizens of 18 who reside in the state from voting triggers the Reduction Clause.
2) Under some definitions of abrigement, gerrymandering likely also triggers the the Reduction Clause.
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2) Under some definitions of abrigement, gerrymandering likely also triggers the the Reduction Clause.
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3) (This one is possibly a bit of a reach) The Reduction Clause may also be triggered by a state which awards its Electoral college votes to a person other than the winner of the popular vote.
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Now, let's talk "shall". In legalese, the word "shall" basically functions as an if statement in coding. If x condition is met then y must occur. Here, the inclusion of "shall" means that, Section 2's enforcement isn't optional if a state violates the abrigement analysis.
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Now you're probably wondering why I've been saying ALL citizens over 18 instead of male citizens over 21. The short answer is that traditionally the 19th and 26th Amendments have been
understood to, well, amend all mentions of who counts as a voter.
in the Constitution.
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understood to, well, amend all mentions of who counts as a voter.
in the Constitution.
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Tl:dr The abrigement analysis in Section 2, if applied correctly, could
pressure states to actually grant universal suffrage, making us a more perfect democracy.
Disclaimer: I'm still workshoping
this analysis so this post main
contain errors.
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pressure states to actually grant universal suffrage, making us a more perfect democracy.
Disclaimer: I'm still workshoping
this analysis so this post main
contain errors.
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This thread contains one of the sources on which I relied on in researching that thread: https://twitter.com/jamari_oneal/status/1383982898831708169?s=19
Ah, I forgot that I'm trying to make #ReductionClause a thing.
