Don't overlook what's happening in the states: A MN Republican has introduced a bill to apportion the state Senate by county (one senator per county), rather than population. It would effectively lock in GOP control of the chamber for decades. minnesotareformer.com/2025/02/03/g... - ThreadSky

cingraham.bsky.social • 28 days ago

Don't overlook what's happening in the states: A MN Republican has introduced a bill to apportion the state Senate by county (one senator per county), rather than population. It would effectively lock in GOP control of the chamber for decades. https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/02/03/gop-senators-flatly-unconstitutional-proposal-would-lock-in-republican-control-of-chamber-for-years/

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ericprindle.bsky.social•28 days ago

If I'm counting properly, there are currently nine Republican senators whose districts are wholly or mostly located in the seven-county metro. With this proposal, that number would likely go down to three at most. I have to think those incumbents would not be too enthusiastic about the idea.

cingraham.bsky.social•28 days ago

Right now each senator represents about 80,000 people. But under the proposed amendment, residents of Traverse County (pop. 3,000) would have the same amount of political representation as those of Hennepin County (pop. 1.3 million).

cingraham.bsky.social•28 days ago

The proposal is "flatly unconstitutional," as @justinlevitt.bsky.social told me. The Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that state legislative bodies must be apportioned equally by population. "Legislators represent people, not trees or acres."

aliendna.bsky.social•28 days ago

Sorry, what? Isn’t that exactly how the US Senate is constituted? 🧐

jemriffster.bsky.social•28 days ago

From what I gather, the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment requires that state legislatures be constituted in such a way that each constituent is roughly equal in representation.

jemriffster.bsky.social•28 days ago

Because the Equal Protection Clause is explicitly directed at states, it generally has not been used to constrain the federal government, and so the makeup of the US Senate, which is laid out in Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution, has not been superseded.

aliendna.bsky.social•28 days ago

The more I learn about that system of government the more my eye twitches. 😉

45xiatai.bsky.social•28 days ago

The United States Senate is a very special case, with special constitutional protections.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/24/democrats-senate-constitution-219033/

cingraham.bsky.social•28 days ago

While the proposal has little chance of becoming law, some rural county commissioners have been agitating for something like it, and a House Republican says she'll be introducing a version of it as well. Our story: https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/02/03/gop-senators-flatly-unconstitutional-proposal-would-lock-in-republican-control-of-chamber-for-years/

cingraham.bsky.social•28 days ago

MN Legislature enthusiasts will recognize the author of the bill as Eric Lucero, also the chief sponsor of last year's nonsense bill about chemtrail stuff https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/04/05/minnesota-republicans-introduce-legislation-inspired-by-the-chemtrails-conspiracy-theory/

neclovian.bsky.social•28 days ago

I wish I'd read about the unconstitutionality higher up the page here...

pinko-machinist.bsky.social•28 days ago

Should’ve been in the first paragraph

45xiatai.bsky.social•28 days ago

A similar system in Iowa was abolished some years ago. It massively violates the one-person, one-vote principle to give each county one state senator in the legislature, because counties vary wildly by population, so that would die if there were a federal court case on it.

raflw.bsky.social•28 days ago

Interesting that Richard Carlbom is being seriously considered for DFL chair with Melman going to D.C.
I doubt this proposed amendment makes it to the voters, but he's the guy to help us squash it like a bug if it does.

45xiatai.bsky.social•28 days ago

Was "Melman" in your reply a typo for "Martin"? I want to make sure I am correctly understanding your reply.

shafiqi.bsky.social•28 days ago

I’m not sure about on the state level but isn’t this what the federal House makeup should be like?

bobapril.bsky.social•28 days ago

(Before I answer, I'm not a lawyer, just a random guy, value my answer accordingly.)

This is what the Senate IS like. The House is by population, but the very smallest states get a higher ratio of Reps per resident because a state can't go lower than one Representative.

bobapril.bsky.social•28 days ago

So Wyoming gets one Rep for 550K population, while most states are closer to 1/700K. And that all changes every 10 years, with growing states getting more Reps, shrinking (or growing slower) losing them. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/apportionment/apportionment-data-table.pdf

bobapril.bsky.social•28 days ago

But this bill wants to replicate our SENATE system, where Wyoming and California each get the same number of Senators. Wyoming, 1 per about 225K. California, 1 per 17 million.

I think our Senate system would be unconstitutional by the 14th Amendment, if the authors had not so clearly implicitly...

bobapril.bsky.social•28 days ago

...left it unchanged by explicitly changing the House system in Section 2. The "Equal Protection" clause ought to make this unconstitutional at the state level. But with this SCOTUS and the precedent of the Federal-level Senate...who knows?

briantnjordan.bsky.social•28 days ago

I’m not downplaying the significance of what this guy is proposing, but what is he wearing? He looks like the world’s first dual wedding-magician-and-DJ for hire.

cingraham.bsky.social•28 days ago

oh it's a whole thing he does

briantnjordan.bsky.social•28 days ago

Oh my.

vthorstenson.bsky.social•28 days ago

So this clown wants to increase the size of the state senate by 20 members, lol. "Moar senators!" plead the people.

FWIW, the 12 counties that would lose representation under a scheme like this would outnumber the rest of the counties by about 3,7800,00 to 1,920,000

slmartin18.bsky.social•28 days ago

They can’t get any work done as it is!

harrybeary.bsky.social•28 days ago

Counter-offer: Abolish state senates. https://prospect.org/politics/abolish-state-senates/

richardkay80.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's pretty clearly unconstitutional under existing precedent. But these days.... Also worth keeping in mind that it was quite common in states for most of American history and is the exact parallel of the legislative branch of the United States Constitution.

tmaspen.bsky.social•28 days ago

Ah more GOP bullshit, no shock there

cynthiakrueger.bsky.social•28 days ago

So Rock county pop. 14,000 has a senator and so does Hennepin County pop. 1,250,000.

Nope, not equal representation under the law.

snarkranger.bsky.social•28 days ago

That style of apportionment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court... of course, they're in the habit of overturning their own precedents right now.

taliesinnola.bsky.social•28 days ago

I know we're beyond this now, but this is illegal and has been for decades. Only the Senate and the Electoral College are allowed to be apportioned other than by population.

dog-the-wag.bsky.social•28 days ago

Sometimes I’m glad I live in a blue state that often flies under the radar of the worst proclivities of tRUMP. But I am livid about what republicans are doing in MN right now with the house. And it isn’t national news. They are doing their own mini coup.

sambotz.bsky.social•28 days ago

We will work to make sure it's opposed. I trust in MN residents to act on this. Spreading the word!

blurtling.bsky.social•28 days ago

isn't this the direct opposite of the entire purpose of having a separate House to offset the senates rigid membership?

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