Changes

The Sixteenth Amendment removes the limitation on income taxes by the federal government that was in the original Constitution.  The Sixteenth Amendment states:

The Sixteenth Amendment removes the limitation on income taxes by the federal government that was in the original Constitution.  The Sixteenth Amendment states:

{{cquote|The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.}}

{{cquote|The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.}}

Some states opposed ratification of this Amendment, which had the effect of transferring enormous power to the federal government.  It took nearly four years for this amendment to be ratified by 3/4 of the States in 1913.

Many Americans opposed ratification of this Amendment, which had the effect of transferring enormous power to the federal government.  It took nearly four years for this amendment to be ratified by 3/4 if theStates, in 1913.

=== Types of taxes ===

=== Types of taxes ===

The distinction between "direct" and "indirect" taxes is important because the original U.S.Constitution, in Art. I, Section 9, Clause 4, limits "direct" taxes to the federal government to what can be apportioned among the population.  This prevents the federal government from taxing wealthy areas or people more than poor areas or people.  If a tax is "indirect", then it is not limited by this provision, which enables the federal government to tax business activity without limitation.  But with respect to individual income, the Sixteenth Amendment gives the federal government unlimited power to impose taxes in any way it chooses.

The distinction between "direct" and "indirect" taxes is important because the original U.S.Constitution, in Art. I, Section 9, Clause 4, limits "direct" taxes to the federal government to what can be apportioned among the population.  This prevents the federal government from taxing wealthy areas or people more than poor areas or people.  If a tax is "indirect", then it is not limited by this provision, which enables the federal government to tax business activity without limitation.  But with respect to individual income, the Sixteenth Amendment gives the federal government unlimited power to impose taxes in any way it chooses.

The lawsuits against ObamaCare have reopened this issue because ObamaCare imposes a penalty (under Congress's taxation power) on non-exempt people who fail to purchase adequate health insurance.  It is not an income tax, so it should not be authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment.  It is not an excise tax, because it applies when there is no activity (declining to purchase government-approved insurance).  Is it a "direct" tax?  If so, then it would not be allowed unless it is apportioned by population, such that wealthy people pay no more than poor people.  However, Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 states "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises." Lawsuits are pending to challenge ObamaCare based on what kind of tax it imposes, and the federal courts will be deciding this issue in the next year or so.

The lawsuits against ObamaCare have reopened this issue because ObamaCare imposes a penalty (under Congress's taxation power) on non-exempt people who fail to purchase adequate health insurance.  It is not an income tax, so it should not be authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment.  It is not an excise tax, because it applies when there is no activity (declining to purchase government-approved insurance).  Is it a "direct" tax?  If so, then it would not be allowed unless it is apportioned by population, such that wealthy people pay no more than poor people.  But if it is not a direct tax, then Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 may allow it: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises." Lawsuits are pending to challenge ObamaCare based on what kind of tax it imposes, and the federal courts will be deciding this issue in the next year or so.

==Race==

== "One man, one vote" ==

In 2004, Howard Dean thought he was helping his candidacy when he repeatedly declared that "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.  We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats."

For 200 years, including prior to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, State legislatures have decided for themselves how they would carve their own legislative districts at the State level.  Nearly all states (other than Nebraska) have a "bicameral" legislature consisting of a house of representatives (call the "Assembly" in New Jersey), and a state senate.  The internal division of those districts within a State had long been considered a matter for only the state legislature to decide, without any interference by the federal government.  For example, should Newark be included in the same district as Morristown?  Should senate districts be based on county lines, or on population?  The U.S. Senate is not based on population, but on State boundaries.

His statements drew hearty applause from Democratic crowds.  After all, the Confederacy was the stronghold of the Democratic party in 1860, and remained its political base for over a hundred years later.

In a decision having vast significance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that States must draw their districts to comply with a rule of "one man, one vote" (or "one person, one vote").  This means that districts must be drawn such that the population size of each district is nearly equal.  This is called "one man, one vote" because it requires that the relative weight of each man's vote is the same no matter where he lives in the State.  His vote cannot be crowded out by living in a district drawn to have a bigger population than other districts in the State.

But then the media jumped on the issue, encouraged by Dean's Democratic opponents.  The Confederate flag represented the South, and the South protected slavery.  After the Civil War, the South was the battleground for African-Americans seeking full civil rights. Until the 1960s there were still practices in the South excluding blacks from lunch counters, public schools and even seats near the front of buses.

The decision, based on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, was ''Reynolds v. Sims'' (1964):

{{cquote|the Equal Protection Clause requires that both houses of a state legislature be apportioned on a population basis}}

Segregation was common nationwide in the school system until the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal in ''Brown v. Board of Educ.'' (1954).  In that case the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) brought a lawsuit on behalf of an 11-year-old girl, Linda Brown, who was ordered by the Topeka, Kansas school board to attend an all-black public school. Like the bloodshed that sparked the Civil War, Kansas once again was on the front line of the racial struggles.

''Reynolds v. Sims'', 377 U.S. 533, 583 (1964).  The Supreme Court thus required of States something that is not required of the U.S. Senate.

The Supreme Court ruled "that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place."  Prior to 1954, schools were allowed to separate white and black students into different schools under the theory that the schools were "separate but equal."  Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for the Supreme Court in ruling that segregated schools were "inherently unequal" and therefore a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Four years later, a 5-3 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court extended the same requirement to county, city and town legislatures also:

{{cquote|the Constitution imposes one ground rule for the development of arrangements of local government: a requirement that units with general governmental powers over an entire geographic area not be apportioned among single-member districts of substantially unequal population.

In the following year, 1955, the Supreme Court ordered an end to segregation in the public schools "with all deliberate speed." But it took until the end of the 1960s to eliminate segregation in all schools and also in transportation, restaurants and hotels.

''Avery v. Midland County'', 390 U.S. 474, 485-486 (1968).  (By "single-member districts" Justice White is referring to a district that elects only one representative for it.)

By the 1970s federal courts began to order busing to attain greater integration in public schools.  Many schoolchildren were transported far from their homes to attend another public school, simply for the purpose of improving racial balance.  School districts that had segregated students by race in the past were subjected to busing.  New school districts, typically in the suburbs, were not required to bus because they had no history of segregation.

Many State legislatures were outraged by these decisions, which they viewed as a burdensome, unjustified infringement on their state sovereignty.  Talk began of passing a constitutional amendment to overturn these decisions, just as other constitutional amendments have overturned prior Supreme Court decisions in the past (such as the 11th and 16th Amendments).  This led to one of the many political ironies of American history, illustrating that God does have a sense of humor.

Busing soon became an enormous political issue, even influencing the presidential election.  In the summer of 1972, Congress passed a law delaying any orders by federal courts to desegregate public schools until all appeals were heard and decided.  This prevented a single federal judge from forcing neighborhoods to bus their children to distant schools.  A few months later, in the presidential election in November 1972, Nixon was elected in a landslide based in part on his criticism of busing.  He swept the Southern states that had traditionally been Democratic.

=== Irony of political history ===

Race remains an enormous issue in American politics, fueled by media attention.  A single comment about ethnicity can destroy a politician or anyone connected with the media. New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato won his seat in a tough race in 1992 by emphasizing how his opponent publicly called him a "fascist". D’Amato said that was a racial slur against his Italian heritage.  He won as voters did not want to elect someone charged with making racial comments.  But six years later, in 1998, his new opponent Charles Schumer used the same argument against him.  D'Amato had insulted Schumer with a Yiddish slur, who then made it look like a racial insult in the media.  Schumer thereby won just as D'Amato had six years earlier.

In the 1960s one of the most powerful U.S. Senators was Everett Dirksen, who represented Illinois and served as its floor leader.  A Senate office building in D.C. bears his name today, in reflection of how well-liked and influential he was.

In 2008, race became a big issue in the presidential election.  Barack Obama won the presidency in part by benefiting from an enormous "turnout" (percentage of eligible voters who actually vote) by African Americans, 95% of whom voted for him.  Predictions of racism by American voters were completely wrong: Obama did as well or even better than polls predicted.

{{cquote|His physical appearance, his dramatic flair, his cathedral-organ voice: all these attributes made him the personification of [a famous fictional senator in radio entertainment].  He was the grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses parade; he pioneered a televised weekly  press conference with his House counterpart; and, with a narrative album entitled Gallant Men, he became a recording star.  The hordes of admiring tourists who flocked to his leader’s office in the Capitol forced him to remove his name from its door.  ... He gained national attention in 1950 when he unseated the Senate Democratic majority leader in a bitter Illinois contest.  ... [A]s a supremely creative and resourceful legislator, Dirksen routinely influenced the agenda of the majority-party Democrats.  ... Cautioning that federal spending had a way of getting out of control, Dirksen reportedly observed, 'A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.'}}

Answer to Question at the beginning of the lecture about which American colony did not allow any gambling: Pennsylvania, the home of the Quakers and freedom of religion.

Senator Dirksen proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court decision in ''Reynolds v. Sims'', and made this statement:

{{"the forces of our national life are not brought to bear on public questions solely in proportion to the weight of numbers. If they were, the 6 million citizens of the Chicago area would hold sway in the Illinois Legislature without consideration of the problems of their 4 million fellows who are scattered in 100 other counties. Under the Court's new decree, California could be dominated by Los Angeles and San Francisco; Michigan by Detroit.}}

 

 

Dirksen's constitutional amendment never passed the U.S. Senate, which was heavily controlled by Democrats.  But the 3/5th requirement remains in the Illinois Constitution, and a few years later Illinois became the key battleground State for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which did pass Congress and 35 States.  Democrats were then unable to attain the 60% threshold, which they insisted upon to block Dirksen's proposed amendment, in order to ratify the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which they wanted.

 

 

 

 

By the 1960s federal courts began to order busing to attain greater integration in public schools.  Many schoolchildren were transported far from their homes to attend another public school, simply for the purpose of improving racial balance.  School districts that had segregated students by race in the past were subjected to busing.  New school districts, typically in the suburbs, were not required to bus because they had no history of segregation.

 

Busing soon became an enormous political issue, even influencing the presidential election.  In the summer of 1972, Congress passed a law delaying any orders by federal courts to desegregate public schools until all appeals were heard and decided.  This prevented a single federal judge from forcing neighborhoods to bus their children to distant schools.  A few months later, in the presidential election in Nov. 1972, Nixon was elected in a landslide based in part on his criticism of busing.  He swept the southern states that had traditionally been Democratic.

 

Race remains an enormous issue in American politics, fueled by media attention.  A single comment about ethnicity can destroy a politician or anyone connected with the media.

== Homework ==

== Homework ==

You can post your answers at [[American Government Homework Eleven]].

You can post your answers at [[American Government Homework Eleven]].

[[Category:American Government lectures]]

[[Category:American Government lectures]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Government Lecture 11}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Government Lecture 11}}