"The Democrats hold in their hands constitutional means yet unused to check the Trump regime's ruthless attempt to impose a police state. That the Democrats thus far have failed to create this oppositional political center of gravity may be because the method has been lost to history, not wielded effectively for 113 years. Focused on the ICE outrages, however, this political instrument can be revived in the 16 states where the Democrats control the governorships and both chambers of the state legislatures,"
"Before the enactment of the 17th amendment in 1913, state legislators and not the voters selected US senators and regarded them frequently as their agents. It was a common practice for legislatures to send what were called orders of instruction urging senators and sometimes members of the House of Representatives to take a particular stand on important issues. The orders were not binding, but had significant force given the power of legislatures and political parties to decide who would hold Senate seats."
Democratic state governments hold a constitutional mechanism to check federal overreach that has been unused for more than a century. State legislatures historically issued nonbinding orders of instruction urging U.S. senators and representatives to take specific positions, leveraging party and legislative influence over selection and tenure. The practice was employed by both antislavery and pro-slavery state legislatures in the nineteenth century to influence congressional action. Reviving these resolutions in Democratic-controlled trifectas and introducing them elsewhere could create a political counterweight focused on immigration enforcement abuses such as ICE practices.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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