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| | If merely 41 senators (out of 100) object to a bill, then they can prevent the majority from voting on it in the U.S. Senate. This is a "filibuster", and it is unique to the U.S. Senate. There is no filibuster power in the U.S. House of Representatives, or in most legislative entities. | | If merely 41 senators (out of 100) object to a bill, then they can prevent the majority from voting on it in the U.S. Senate. This is a "filibuster", and it is unique to the U.S. Senate. There is no filibuster power in the U.S. House of Representatives, or in most legislative entities. |
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| | + | == Court decisions == |
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| | + | About 5% of an American Government exam asks about specific, important U.S. Supreme Court cases. For example, a question could ask about the "one man, one vote" principle that we discussed in the last lecture. The two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that required state legislatures to draw their legislative districts in equal proportion, by population, to each other was ''Baker v. Carr'' (1962) and ''Reynolds v. Sims'' (1964). ''Baker v. Carr'' first held that the U.S. Supreme Court had the power to decide the challenge to state legislatures, and then ''Reynolds v. Sims'' was the decision that applied the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to require that both houses of a state legislature be apportioned on a population basis. |
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| | + | This was important for several reasons. First, the U.S. Supreme Court was using the 14th Amendment to tell state legislatures what they could do. That was unheard of before the 14th Amendment passed. Originally, States considered themselves to be more powerful than the federal government, and States did not expect them to be subjected to being told what to do by federal courts. Indeed, the 11th Amendment was passed in order to limit the power of federal courts with respect to the States. |
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| | + | But the "one man, one vote" also made high-population areas, such as cities, more powerful in State legislatures, which helped Democrats but hurt Republicans. The court decision shifted some power at the State level from Republicans, who are more popular in rural areas, to Democrats, who are more popular in cities. |
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| | + | State legislatures can still engage in "gerrymandering" in drawing legislative districts, both for State legislatures and for Congress, in ways to favor one political party or the other. Obama, a Democrat, won the most votes in Pennsylvania, but due to gerrymandering Republicans won most of the congressional districts. |
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| | == Public Policy and Everything Else == | | == Public Policy and Everything Else == |