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Originally Posted by Lothar5150
What part of the United States Constitution would you change?
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To start? The part about a black man being counted as 3/5 of a white.
And before you say it, yes I understand that it came from a compromise and that it gave the South disproportionate political power
and was a reason that slavery persisted (not as big as the cotton gin, though).
I'm not 'way hot on the electoral college, either.
On the other hand, there
is a lot to say for changing nothing - just to sidestep the issue of unintended consequences, although I can't think what they might be around changing 3/5 to 5/5.
My wife teaches English as a second language - and sometimes we have students from her school as long term guests (started as a dorm room shortage emergency but now we just like having 'em around). Our most recent guest was from Colombia, had degrees in law and was clerking for one of the justices in their supreme court. They're in the throes of changing their constitution and it was very interesting to have an ongoing conversation comparing constitutional law in different countries (their current one is based on the French system and they are attempting to meld it with the US one) particularly as it was
not an academic conversation but one focused much more on practical consequences. I'm no lawyer, but was glad to be the sounding board.