Chapter 3

1)
In the given scenario, the House Judiciary Committee could have addressed Representative
Frank Guinta’s concerns through their power to change criminal law and redefine what a
person may or may not be liable for.

In this scenario, the bill was likely treated just like any other bill as it moved through the
legislative process. The bill was introduced by a member- a Representative in this case,- it was
passed through relevant committees, the Judiciary Committee provided a germane amendment
under their oversight, and it was brought to the House floor for a vote before moving to the
Senate.

In the context of the scenario the bill must move between the chambers as any other must.
When it has been approved by the house, it will be passed on to the Senate, which may
approve it, amend it, or kill it based on the action of senators. In the Senate, the whip and
majority leader would work hard to keep their votes in line to either support the action or
disapprove.

2)
The graph of 33 sessions of Congress shows the increase of the portion of bills that enter
gridlock in each session in comparison to the total amount of legislation being discussed.

Over the course of the 33 sessions, the amount of bills in deadlock as proportion of the total
number of issues at play has generally increased with far more being held back at numerous
points in the process.

This deadlock ultimately signifies the idea the framers laid out for the Republic. As was
discussed in Federalist 10, the framers knew that a Republic this large would have multitudes of
competing factions trying to gain attention, and they observed that these would cancel out to
result in middle ground positions. As such, deadlock has resulted in radical legislation being
blocked by the expansion of interest groups.

3)
As described in the prompt, the court cases of League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry
is distinct from Shaw v. Reno because in League, the case centered around the timing of the
redrawing and a district which was previously majority-minority. In Shaw, the case was merely
based on discrimination against a group of voters that had been disenfranchised.

When it comes to their rulings, Shaw was decided based on the idea that a district cannot be
drawn based on race- hence the ruling support majority-minority districts. On the other hand,
League did not have enough evidence of harm on voters to support a violation of the Voting
Rights Act.
 Chapter 3

The idea of separation of powers was set up as a foundation to give each branch a separate
sphere of influence and to make sure that none became too powerful. In both Shaw and
League, the Supreme Court was worried that overstepping would tarnish this separation and
that they would become a partisan institution- thus leaving them open to political games and
lowering their stature.

4) Are term limits for members of Congress harmful or beneficial?

Although some may argue term limits would be harmful to Congress, they would actually
be beneficial to securing the freedom of the country and limiting the influence of elites.

Congress is designed to be powerful: in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution, it is given

powers including power of the purse, regulation of commerce, advice and consent of
department heads, and more. As such, it logically follows that we would want to keep this
power from being corrupted. Term limits would help with this; limiting the influence any 1
individual can have on government.

To further consider this point, we can turn to Federalist no. 51 where Madison observes
that if men were angels we would need no government. However, humans are inherently
flawed, so he acknowledges the need for government and the oversight of it. The addition of
term limits would do just this- it would keep people in the Congress from becoming so corrupt,
and it would let the pool of candidates stay fresh.

Supporters of Congress could argue that term limits would place an unfair restriction on
the careers of politicians. In truth, the Constitution provides for them to be representatives and
servants of the people: Congress was never meant to be a career for anyone.