14th Amendment Structure
Article 1 of the constitution covers the purpose and the organization of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Though there are ten sections in the Article and numerous subparagraphs, this paper will focus on the structure, and a few of the subparagraphs concerning its function. We will begin with the organization since this should be covered before the responsibilities are addressed; this starts in the second section, with how the house will be selected, the requirements to be selected, and how the proportions should be arranged. This was an extremely sensitive subject for many of the delegates at the time of the framing of the constitution due to representation.
The second section of Article one begins with the when the house of …show more content…
The issue still was how congress would allot for its representatives given the numbers of constituents in each of the states; originally they attempted one for every thirty thousand which if initially ratified would have fell short of the necessary three-fourths (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). Direct representation Madison would point out during the attempt to find a solution is impossible, even a tiny state like Rhode island would find it difficult to be at every assembly, he insisted on a smaller select group (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). The one in every thirty thousand would be later changed to one in every forty thousand and would be adjusted every ten years as the population grew (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). This mathematical formula made little sense as Mr. Amar states “if the population grew from eight to nine million in a decade the house would be 200 delegates” which would negate the condition that there not be more than one for every fifty thousand (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). This section changed in 1910 the basis of representation was one for every 210,000 inhabitants, and it wasn’t till the 1930’s by the act of June 1929 that the house was restricted to 435 members, now they just continue to divide the population to meet the electoral quota (Corwin et al., 1978). The senate allocations are extremely less problematic provided by section 3 of article one it simply states there will be two senators for each state, and even the addition in the 17th amendment does not change much but adds the basis if there are any vacancy (Corwin et al.,
The second section of Article one begins with the when the house of …show more content…
The issue still was how congress would allot for its representatives given the numbers of constituents in each of the states; originally they attempted one for every thirty thousand which if initially ratified would have fell short of the necessary three-fourths (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). Direct representation Madison would point out during the attempt to find a solution is impossible, even a tiny state like Rhode island would find it difficult to be at every assembly, he insisted on a smaller select group (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). The one in every thirty thousand would be later changed to one in every forty thousand and would be adjusted every ten years as the population grew (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). This mathematical formula made little sense as Mr. Amar states “if the population grew from eight to nine million in a decade the house would be 200 delegates” which would negate the condition that there not be more than one for every fifty thousand (Amar, Akhil Reed, 1992). This section changed in 1910 the basis of representation was one for every 210,000 inhabitants, and it wasn’t till the 1930’s by the act of June 1929 that the house was restricted to 435 members, now they just continue to divide the population to meet the electoral quota (Corwin et al., 1978). The senate allocations are extremely less problematic provided by section 3 of article one it simply states there will be two senators for each state, and even the addition in the 17th amendment does not change much but adds the basis if there are any vacancy (Corwin et al.,