By: Josh Mineni
The Legislature
In this weeks blog I will be talking about what I learned about the government. The first thing I learned is that several features of the lawmaking bodies vary among the fifty states and that over half of the States refer to this lawmaking body officially as the “legislature”. But what about the rest? In nineteen of the remaining states, they refer to it as the “General Assembly”, and in only two states is it referred to as the “Legislative Assembly”, leaving the last two to refer to it as the “General Court.” All but one of the fifty states, which is forty nine, are bicameral which means that it has two chambers. The upper house is known everywhere as “the Senate,” however, the lower house is mostly known as “the House of Representatives” but have many other names, like the General Assembly, or the House of Delegates.
On the other hand, unicameral is known as one of the most significant steps that could be taken to improve State legislatures. Although it was successful in Nebraska, any efforts to expand it anywhere else has quickly been shot down. The people who defend bicameralism like to claim that one house can check on others to prevent one chambered lawmaking bodies.
There is no set ideal size for a legislative body, but there are two basic thing taken into consideration. First, a legislature, should not be so large that it should step on people’s orderly conduct of business. Second, it should not be too small to the point where the views are not adequately represented. So in other words, size matters but they’ll say it doesn’t to make the people feel better. The upper house is mostly made up of thirty to fifty members, and Alaska has as few as twenty, Minnesota being the largest with sixty seven. The lower house usually ranges anywhere from one hundred to one hundred and fifty. Again Alaska is lacking with only forty, and New Hampshire comes in with four hundred.
State Legislators
Nearly all of the state legislators are either Republican or Democrat, with fewer than thirty belonging to a minor or independent party. Now please enjoy this quote from Alan Ehrenhalt, “You need to know about all sorts of things… which party is in control and by how much… who the governor is, and he gets along with the legislators… what sorts of people those legislators are: not just what they say but how long they have been there, where they come from, what they did before they ran for office and how they got elected… the communities that produced them, the families that raised them and the other families they were close to; where they went to school…” Now this quote brought one word to my head, yes only one, not much goes on up there, but it was knowledge. Now let me read you a quote from a wise man, “Here in my garage, just bought this uhh new Lamborghini here, it’s fun to drive up here in the Hollywood Hills, but you know what I like more? KNOWLEDGE!” – Tai Lopez, 2015.
Every State’s constitution sets out formal requirements like age, citizenship, and residence for legislators. Mostly everywhere, to be a representative you must be at least eighteen or twenty one years old, and in over half of the States, the senators must be at least twenty five years old. The realities of the politics of the States add more difficult requirements to meet such as a candidate’s vote-getting abilities, race, occupation, name, religion, and national origin.
Everywhere, legislatures are chosen by popular vote, and most everywhere are nominated at party primaries. The nominees are picked by conventions in only a few states. In Nebraska, the unicameral legislature is organized on a nonpartisan basis. Nonpartisan means that it is not belonging to or favoring a political party. In most States, the lawmakers are elected in November of years ending in an even number, guess whoever made that decision had obsessive compulsive disorder. In Mississippi, New Jersey, Virginia, and Louisiana, the lawmakers are elected in odd numbered years in hopes that the State and local issues will be separated in national policies.
Every State’s constitution requires that legislators be chosen from districts that are within the State, and are nearly all elected from single-membered districts. Those districts are drawn by the legislature in most states and redrawn every ten years. Based on where I live, my State assembly member from district 21 is Adam Gray. My State senator based on where I live is Anna Caballero from district 12. Most State’s legislatures were overtaken by rural, less populated areas of the State. In 1962, the US Supreme Court held the unfair distribution of State legislative seats to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. That was shortly followed by Reynolds v Sims in 1964 and there was declared every State had to choose on the population equality basis.
Legislators are elected on either a two or four year basis. Representatives serve two year terms in forty four states and four year terms in Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and North Dakota. Fifteen States now the number of terms a person can serve. The rate of turnover or the rate at which people enter and leave a group is high, and are mainly caused by low pay, political instability, or term limits. Very often, men and women capable of the job do not run for seats in the legislature because of financial sacrifices that they would have to make. California pays lawmakers $114,000 per year plus expenses and benefits. In every State, the governor and 3/4 the legislatures can call the body into session. These meeting which are commonly infrequent, allow them to consider urgent matters in between their normally scheduled meetings.
Powers of the Legislature
There are no State’s where the constitution lists all of the powers given to the legislature. In every State, the legislature has all of the powers that 1. the State constitution does not grant exclusively to the executive or judicial branches or to local governments and 2. neither the State constitution nor the United States Constitution denies it. The fact that the legislature can enact any laws that does not conflict with any provision in federal law or State constitution means that there is no list of powers that all legislatures hold.
Every State’s legislature possesses the police power which is the State’s important power to protect and promote the public health, public safety, public morals, and the general welfare. Most of what the government does in this country is done by the States and their local governments, and most of what they do is expressed through the police power. Basically that authority is the power to safeguard or protect the people of the state. That makes you think, HOW MUCH POWER SHOULD STATE GOVERNMENT HAVE? Good question if you ask me, to answer that, the States have the power to make pretty serious laws and they are there to ensure our health, safety, and general welfare, so to an extent they should set boundaries to keep us in check but when it comes to things outside of the realm of general health, they need to back off. The States determine the minimum wage and I think that if they want to take so many taxes out of workers paychecks to benefit others that are getting government aid, they should also have set more strict laws as to who is able to receive government aid and make it available for a much shorter time.
In the separation of powers and checks and balances scheme, the legislature exercises some executive powers, for example, the power to approve or reject the governor’s appointment of a number of officials. In some States, the legislature itself appoints executive officers. The legislature also has some judicial powers, which is stopped at impeachment, sore subject. The legislature has a significant part in constitution making and the constitutional amendment process, exercising it’s constituent power.
Direct Legislation
In some states, voters can take part in directly making laws. Through the initiative process, voters in eighteen States can propose amendments to the State’s constitution. In twenty one states, they can also use that process to propose ordinary statues. In both forms of the initiative, the direct and indirect, a certain number of qualified voters must sign a petition to initiate or to begin a law. A referendum is a process where the legislature refers a measure to voters for their final opinion. The three different forms of referendum is mandatory, optional, and popular. A mandatory referendum occurs in situations where legislature has to send a measure to voters. An optional referendum is where a measure that the legislature has referred to the voters voluntarily. A popular referendum is where a group of citizens can demand by petition that a measure that is passed must be ran by the voters first.
Closing Thoughts
In this weeks blog I shared how I learned about the ways that laws are made and different roles of legislation. I also learned that lawmakers in California make bank and I need to know how and where to sign up. Come back next week where I will be talking about the roles of the Governor and the State Administration, you will not want to miss it!
Works Cited
- McClenaghan, William A. Magruder’s American Government
- http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
- https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-legislators-pay-raises-20190621-story.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv1RJTHf5fk
