Saturday 9 August 2008

The Corwin amendment

Given that the right to make amendments to the US Constitution is guaranteed by the US Constitution itself, I wonder (alt-historically) at what would have happened in a logical sense had the Corwin amendment been passed: ""No amendment shall be made to the Constitution..." Would this not have resulted in a sort of legislative feedback squeal, a looping recursive passage of constitutional energy that would have short-circuited the whole document? It might have left the USA without a constitution in 1861, in effect an anarchy in which might would have been right, exploitation and guncrime would have permeated the land. Doesn't bear thinking about.

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