Full Description
This book reveals how Congress quietly shaped American elections across more than a century of constitutional development. Far from a passive observer, Congress used its authority to influence key controversies - from the expansion of slavery in new territories to the reconstruction of the post-Civil War electorate. Congress exercised power under the Elections Clause, the Guarantee Clause, and later, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, to combat voter suppression, reimagine representation, and determine who could (and could not) participate in American democracy. Even as Jim Crow laws disenfranchised millions, Congress continued to review and sometimes overturn the elections of its own members, refusing to cede complete control to the states. In doing so, Congress routinely subordinated federalism to politics. In Congress We Trust? provides a new perspective on who truly governs our system of elections by showing that federal authority has been broad, lasting, and decisive.
Contents
Introduction: the lost story of federal voting rights enforcement; Part I. Federalism and Republicanism as Political Norms: The Structural Constitution, State Political Systems, and the Regulation of Federal Elections: 1. Federal power under the guarantee clause amidst changing notions of republicanism; 2. Federalism as a political construct?: Federal power under the elections Clause and Article I, Section 5; Part II. From Madison's Republic to Jackson's Democracy: The Constitution of Political Rights and the Evolution of Political Communities: 3. Constructing 'we the people' and 'we the voters': a tale of two polities; 4. The fight to expand the boundaries of 'we the voters': from alter or abolish to the right to vote; Part III. Reconstruction: 5. Reinventing federalism?: The shift towards a national conception of voting and elections; 6. 'In whom is the right of suffrage?': Reconstruction legislation as political community redefined; Part IV. The Politics of Exclusion?: The Triumph of Partisan Politics over Broad Enfranchisement: 7. Voting as deservedness: policing the political community of 'we the voters'; 8. Congressional power at its nadar: federalism, judicial supremacy, and the long kiss goodnight; 9. In congress we trust?: A final curtain call for the reconstruction project; Epilogue: in congress we trust?; Lessons from a failed political experiment.
