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Will Maryland lead the nation?

By Jack M. Balkin

An interesting story in today's Washisngton Post notes that Marylanders wil, thanks to their constitution, have the opportunity this November to vote to call a new constitutional convention that would be empowered to suggest significant revisions to the Maryland Constitution, whose present form goes back to the immediately post-Reconstruction Era. For obvious reasons, I hope that the good folks of Maryland will vote for such a convention and that, more to the point, it can serve as a model of the kind of constitutional reflection that is so desperately needed (and lacking) in the United States today. Unfortunately, the constitutional revision movement in California seems to have collapsed. And New York, another contemporary "failed state," will not have the next opportunity to vote for a new convention, as its constitution also allows, for some years.

Indeed, won't devotees of "federalism" at some point have to confront the fact that a striking number especially of our larger states are essentially terminally dysfunctional? I vehemently oppose the unwillingness of crazed congressional Republicans to pass legislation that might enable states to get through the crisis without further massive layoffs. On the other hand, if there is a silver lining to such truly anti-social behavior, it might be to illustrate that modern American states are incapable of functioning effectively without a significant federal presence, including the necessary infusion of funds when times are tough. Perhaps the Party of No will in fact triumph in the 2010 elections. I wonder what they will be saying in 2012, when the complete and utter lack of a "governing vision"--unless it is to return to the wisdom of Andrew Mellon and Herbert Hoover by cutting spending during a time of de-facto depression--is apparent for all to see.

Full post as published by Balkinization on July 05, 2010 (boomark / email).