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100 Geo. L.J. 237 (2011-2012)
Response: The Case for Reforming Presidential Elections by Subconstitutional Means: The Electoral College, the National Popular Vote Compact, and Congressional Power

handle is hein.journals/glj100 and id is 239 raw text is: Response: The Case for Reforming Presidential Elections by Subconstitutional Means: The Electoral College, the National Popular Vote Compact, and Congressional Power ViKRAM DAVID AMAR* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. ARGUMENTS ABOUT FEDERALISMIREGIONALISM .................. 241 II. THE SENATE ANXIETY ................................. 246 III. THE PLURALITY WINNER AND THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE PROBLEMS 247 IV. PROBLEMS WITH THE CURRENT NPVC DESIGN ................... 249 It is particularly fitting that my exchange with Professor Norman Williams, concerning national popular election of Presidents, should take place in the 100th Anniversary Volume of The Georgetown Law Journal. The Journal published its first pages precisely at a time when federal legislators across town on Capitol Hill-and reformers throughout the rest of the nation-were in the thick of a contentious national movement to bring about popular election of United States senators. And quite instructively, that movement (although it culminated in a formal constitutional amendment, introduced in Congress al- most exactly a century ago, in 1912) was driven and accomplished largely at the subconstitutional level by creative and energetic people acting first in state, and only later in national, arenas. Every law student learns that the original Constitution assigned the power and duty to select U.S. Senators to the state legislatures, and that the Seven- teenth Amendment-codifying direct election of Senators-was a product of the Progressive Era. But the story of the Seventeenth Amendment is one primarily about state-level innovation. Beginning in the mid-1800s, state-level political parties and organizations sought ways to involve the people more directly in selecting electors. The famous Lincoln-Douglas debates were de- signed to allow voters to consider whom state legislators would, if elected, likely select for the U.S. Senate.' But because voters must consider many different issues-not just Senate selection-when they elect state legislatures, * Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, UC Davis School of Law. © 2011, Vikram David Amar. Although the views expressed here are my own and should not be attributed to others, I profited greatly from the input of Akhil Amar, Alan Brownstein, Chris Elmendorf, and Carlton Larson. 1. See, e.g., David A. Strauss, Commentary, The Irrelevance of Constitutional Amendments, 114 HARv. L. REV. 1457, 1496-97 (2001).

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