Needed Changes in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution-Part One By Harsha Sankar

The US Constitution is not a perfect document. It is in need of minor changes.

The 12th Amendment needs to be changed. Read my previous post to see what changes need to be made.

The fundamental reason for the change is simple. When the US Constitution was written, the States were sovereign Republics. After the 14th Amendment was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, the States and their governments were converted into franchises of the USA and the federal government. The united States of America became the United States of America as people became federal citizens.

Correctly or incorrectly, this is the type of governance the American People accepted. In America, there is so much emphasis in the happenings of the White House and Congress because America became a "Top-Down Society" after the Civil War. In other nations, such as India, it is a "Bottom-Up Society" because local politicians wield the most amount of influence.   

Since the federal government is now at least the sovereign governmental authority, the manner of the choosing of Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors should change as well. The states should no longer have the total discretion as per its laws. Instead the federal government ,by federal law only, can amend the US Constitution to allow the federal government to pass legislation that governs the choosing of these electors. 

The federal government also has the authority to pass legislation that changes the 12th Amendment in other respects. It must be noted that the 12th Amendment governs the choosing of the President and Vice-President. Since they are the heads of the sovereign federal government, the federal government with sovereign governmental authority can legislate the manner of the choosing of these two officeholders. 

Cliff Notes Version: Since governance fundamentally changed after the Civil War as the federal government gained supremacy in regards to governmental authority. People were no longer citizens of the state but rather they became citizens of the nation. The uSA became the USA after the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868.

The original U.S. Constitution cited that state legislatures have to pass laws that govern the choosing of presidential and vice-presidential electors. Since the U.S. Constitution was fundamentally changed after the Civil War, the federal government should be given the authority to pass laws that govern the choosing of these electors instead.