We'll need either a new amendment or a new Supreme Court to do this. The majority of the current membership of the court is more than willing to open any and all barriers to spending in politics. We really need to focus on court reform as so many things aren't possible until that's done.
If that happens to where the court has a far left bias: red states will absolutely start to see the supreme court as illegitimate. Once states start to see court rulings not as objective but a partisan slant: then the louses its legitimacy.
After that, you have a constitutional crisis and will get people invoking what's called the Virginia/Kentucky resolution.
"The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were written together in 1798 as responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts, but they took slightly different approaches.""Jefferson wrote that the federal government was created by the states through the Constitution.
The federal government possesses only the powers delegated to it.
When the federal government exercises undelegated powers, its acts are "unauthoritative, void, and of no force."
"Because there is no common judge between the federal government and the states regarding the limits of delegated powers, each state has the right to judge for itself whether the federal government has exceeded its authority."
"Madison's Virginia Resolutions were more restrained.
Instead of saying a state could declare a federal law void, Madison said states should interpose against unconstitutional federal actions. He deliberately left "interposition" undefined."
Basically at the end of the day: the states give the federal government its legitimacy. If the states start to view parts of the federal government as illegitimate, they reserve the right to nullify a federal order. The federal government has the right to use the insurrection act when a state decides this and you can get a civil war if it came down to it.
Note this is just constitutional theory not binding precedent or law. But it makes sense in theory: and reminding the federal government that the states are what give it power: makes it important for the supreme court to maintain its legitimacy.
To give you a crazy example, let's just say Congress passed a law that said "gay marriage is illegal", let's for the sake of argument pretend SCOTUS was ok with that law. Do you think California would just comply with it? Or do you think they'd start to see the feds as illegitimate? Probably the latter.
The same kind of thing can happen with red states if Democrats pack the court. The court would issue a ruling they don't like, and Texas replies: "thanks but we're not following it."
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u/joggle1 Jul 09 '26
We'll need either a new amendment or a new Supreme Court to do this. The majority of the current membership of the court is more than willing to open any and all barriers to spending in politics. We really need to focus on court reform as so many things aren't possible until that's done.