andy wrote:
"Which is why it will almost certainly not succeed, as was our Founders' intent. A Constitutional amendment would be required, which even under present circumstances would have virtually no possibility of passage, given that 34 state legislatures would have to agree to something that would benefit only the coastal elites of a far smaller number of states, but also their political dependents. So it is not impossible."
No, Andy, you misunderstand.
The entire purpose behind "National Popular Vote" is to do an end-run around the Constitutional establishment of the Electoral College.
The leftist/democrat-communists are getting within' spittin' distance of having enough state legislatures sign onto this, that we had better not discount it on its face.
Of course, NPV will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court at some point.
This case will become as important to the future of the United States in the Twenty-first Century, as was the Dredd Scott decision of 1857. Which became perhaps "the fuse" that eventually led to the explosion in April of 1861...
There is no such thing as an "end-run" around the Constitution, at least not in this case:
USC Article 2 Section 1:
"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
Part of the subsequent original language has already been amended by the 12th Amendment, which clarified the mechanism by which both Presidents and Vice Presidents would be elected. But the fundamental language establishing an Electoral College remains to this day unchallenged, and it cannot be undone by a vote of state legislatures external to the creation of a constitutional amendment abolishing the College itself, and instituting a popular vote in its stead.
So yes, any effort to avoid the necessity of amending the Constitution in order to abolish the Electoral College would inevitably lead to a Supreme Court challenge, the necessary result of which would be to enforce the nation's highest law. Or else, face an equally necessary revolt by the states and by the people, whose consequences one shudders to imagine.
