The chapter on the Electoral College, for example, contains a remarkable discussion of constitutional issues that could potentially frustrate electoral reform, many of which should be unfamiliar to even serious students of the US government, such as the
Compact Clause of the US Constitution.
from the
Compact Clause, which restricts the ability of states to enter
As an interstate compact, the IAD rests on the
Compact Clause of the U.S.
The Interstate Treaty Clause and Interstate
Compact Clause effectively create three categories of interstate agreements, which are subject to different rules.
(175) Certain types of interstate agreements or compacts, he notes, do not require the explicit consent of Congress "because they do not affect national sovereignty or concern the core meaning of the
Compact Clause." (176) He maintains, however, that the National Popular Vote agreement would require explicit congressional approval because it binds the states to a particular course of action, places time limits on their ability to withdraw from NPV, and meets or exceeds conditions historically found to define "interstate compacts" by the Supreme and other U.S.
The Contract Clause and the
Compact Clause, respectively forbidding the states from impairing contractual obligations and forming agreements without the consent of Congress, limit the effect of local and interstate factional influence.)
The
Compact Clause. The first constitutional question likely to arise is whether collaboration between states is even constitutionally permitted.
The interstate
compact clause was viewed initially as a mechanism allowing states added flexibility to solve regional problems by contractual conjoint activities, thereby obviating the need for Congress to devote time to solving a bistate or regional problem capable of solution by interstate cooperation.
focusing on the RGGI: preemption, the
Compact Clause, and the Dormant
(12) The State Department Memo declined, however, to determine the MOU's constitutionality, saying merely that it "potentially implicates several constitutional doctrines," including the
Compact Clause. (13)
Muller, a law clerk for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, argues that the popular vote would clearly fall under the
Compact Clause of the Constitution, which reads: "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress...
He traces the rise and fall of the Article, particularly what he considers its most important provisions: the Contract Clause, the Bill of Attainder and Ex Post Facto Clause, the non-retroactive provisions, the Import-Export Clause, and the Interstate
Compact Clause. Kenneth Starr, of blue dress fame, contributes a Foreword.
