Hi, I'm Senator Mike Lee.
Welcome to another episode of
The Constitution: Line by Line.
Today we're going to be talking about
Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution.
Article 1, Section 2 talks about
the House of Representatives.
The very first clause of Article 1, Section 2
makes clear that in the House of Representatives,
terms last for just two years,
as compared to four years
for President of the United States and Vice President.
And it's compared to six years
for members of the United States Senate.
This makes the House of Representatives
the most accountable arm of the federal government.
It makes it most responsive to the people.
So if the people either like or dislike what's happening
in Congress in any particular year,
that's going to have an impact in the election
that occurs at the end of that two year cycle.
This in turn is part of why it's so important
that we focus on Congress
as the law making body within the federal government.
Because in order to pass a law within our federal system,
you have to have a proposal that goes through the House,
and through the Senate,
and then goes past the President's desk
for signature or veto.
There are a lot of people, particularly those who've served
in the House of Representatives
who will complain from time to time about the fact
that a two year election cycle is a short one.
That it feels like members of the House of Representatives
are always up for reelection
because they quite literally are.
They're always either just recovering
from their last election
or preparing for their next one,
unless they've decided not to run again.
As a result, they have strong reason
to remain in close contact with their constituents,
with the voters in their respective states and districts.
This in turn means that they're much more likely aware
because they have every reason to need to be aware
of the changing opinions
within their home state and district.
This is important to every single member
of the House of Representatives and it ought to be something
that the American people are grateful for,
rather than being something that they resent.
For the simple reason
that it keeps the American people in charge.
It makes sure that Congress isn't doing things
that are wildly inconsistent
with the views of the citizens, the voters themselves.
The next clause of Article 1, Section 2, that is Clause 2
sets out the basic qualifications
for someone to serve in the House of Representatives.
You have to be at least 25 years old,
you have to have been a citizen of the United States
for at least seven years,
and you have to be a current inhabitant
of the state from which you are elected.
Interestingly, it doesn't say that you have to reside
in the congressional district from which you are elected
but you do have to be a current inhabitant
of the state in question.
Most of the time, most representatives
live in the same district that they represent.
But constitutionally speaking,
there's no requirement for that and it very rarely happens
because voters in a particular congressional district
usually wants someone representing them
who lives in that district.
The third clause of Article 1, Section 2 is fairly long
but it contains a lot of language that's no longer relevant.
It starts out by explaining that representation
within the House of Representatives,
that is each state's seats in the House of Representatives
will be determined on the basis of relative population.
That in the census that takes place every 10 years,
there will be an effort to ascertain the whole number
of persons in each state and on that basis,
choose how many representatives each state receives.
Currently and for a long time, for well over a century,
by statute we have set
the total number of representatives at 435.
Right off the top, each state gets one representative.
So that takes us from 1 up to 51.
Then from seat 51,
all the way through the allocation of seat 435,
you run the population data through a mathematical formula,
an algorithm that determines which state gets the next seat,
until you've filled all of the seats all the way up to 435.
And then you do that every 10 years
to make sure that each state is properly represented.
As originally written, Clause 3 of Article 1, Section 2,
it didn't allocate representation in Congress
according to just the whole number of persons in each state.
It was according to the whole number of free persons
plus 3/5 of the number of non-free persons, meaning slaves.
We made a big mistake as a country
in allowing slavery to begin with
and in making it easier for the slave states
to perpetuate that abominable institution.
Fortunately, through the Civil War
and the so called Civil War Amendments,
including and especially for our purposes here,
the 14th Amendment.
We got rid of this repugnant language
and we made clear that representation in Congress
needed to be allocated according to a count every 10 years
of the whole number of persons in each state.
Not only did this change
in the second section of the 14th Amendment,
get rid of something really bad, it was also something
that represented the culmination of the American Dream,
of the vision that our Founding Fathers had.
Not just with the Constitution
but of the original founding document,
the Declaration of Independence.
When we recognized that all men are created equal,
that they're endowed by their creator
with certain inalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness,
we envisioned a land where people would be judged
and treated based on the content of their hearts
and their mere existence as human beings,
rather than on the basis of the color of their skin.
It's one of the many reasons why we should be grateful
for the fact that under Article 5 of the Constitution,
we have the power to amend the Constitution
when we've made a mistake, as we clearly did
with the original text of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3.
Clause 4 of Article 1, Section 2
makes clear that when a vacancy occurs
in the House of Representatives,
there will be an election to fill that vacancy
and that the chief executive, today we would say
the governor of that state,
will have authority consistent with state law
to call for an election to fill that vacancy.
This makes the House of Representatives
distinct from the Senate in yet another way.
The Constitution provides that when vacancies occur
at midterm within the Senate,
the governor of the state in question
has the power to replace that Senator.
That can't happen with respect to our Representatives.
You cannot get into the House of Representatives
without an election.
And so Clause 4 of Article 1, Section 2
simply gives the governor of each state
the power to call for an election
to fill any vacancies that might arise.
Finally, Clause 5 of Article 1, Section 2
explains that the members of the House of Representatives
will have the power to choose the Speaker
of the House of Representatives,
along with such other officers
as the House of Representatives might choose to create,
and that the House of Representatives
will have the sole power of impeachment.
And so when we look at Article 1, Section 2,
what we see is a portion of the Constitution
that lays out the ground rules for the people's house,
the house of Congress that's most accountable
to the people with the most regular intervals.
And that is even more democratic
than any of the other institutions
within the federal government
because it involves the direct election
of representatives every single two years.
That makes it much more accountable to the people.
It makes it the people's house.
It's one of the reasons why it's such an important feature
within our constitutional framework.
Thanks for joining us for another episode
of The Constitution: Line by Line.
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