Something to pay attention to that I don’t hear a lot of conversation about. Changing the US Constitution can be initiated by the legislatures of 2/3 of the states and is effective when ratified by the state legislatures of 3/4 of the states. That is, the legislatures of just 38 states can, together, change the Constitution. Right now Republicans control 32 state legislatures. They need six more states and they can pass anything at all they can unify around. Don’t think that Republican strategists are not aware of this. Local politics matter.
What types of things might Republicans do if they had 38 legislatures? Among other options, they could eliminate birthright citizenship (part of the 14th amendment). Or perhaps the equal protection clause (again, part of the 14th amendment). That one has proven particularly annoying as it is the legal underpinning of much of the civil rights movement. Of course, a national ban on abortion would probably get a lot of discussion. Or they could enshrine “religious freedom” into the Constitution. If that were implemented in any way similar to the proposals that been advanced in several of the states recently, such an amendment would essentially enshrine the right to discriminate, as long as such discrimination were based on a recognized religious belief. Given that bills are being advanced in a number of states to criminalize various forms of protest, a revision of the First Amendment might be conceivable; perhaps narrowing or otherwise placing restrictions on freedom of assembly. And these are just the things that occurred to me in three minutes.
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