Posted on 11/21/2012 8:21:50 PM PST by neverdem
Simple majority
http://www.graystatemovie.com/
It’s a majority of Senators present, so no, 34 would not be enough.
US Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2:
With a minimum quorum of 51 Senators present, two thirds of that is 34.
Get out your checkbook, you owe FR $1,000.
You didn’t make the bet with me.
Do you really think Harry Reid cares about the Constitution? Our president and his entire cabinet certainly don’t.
You decided to "correct" me in replying to that bet.
Do you really think Harry Reid cares about the Constitution?
Only to the degree to which he can twist it to his advantage. Given the standards of "senators present" for a filibuster, it might be possible to enact the supreme law of the land and invalidate a Constitutionally recognized pre-existing right with as few as three Senators present. If you want to understand how that was possible, and that it was predicted by Patrick Henry before the ink was dry, read this.
Fact: Get rid of Quinn and replace him with a pro-2nd Amendment Governor and Illinois will have CC.
As Carry_Okie suggest, we should read the Constitution, but we should also attend to what it means. It requires the vote of 2/3 of the Senate to ratify a treaty, and thus the votes of more than 1/3 of the Senate can deny a treaty ratification. Hence, 34 (> 100/3) Senators can prevent ratification of a treaty. Yes, if our folks don’t show up for the vote and let the ‘Rats have a quorum, 2/3 of a quorum will suffice to ratify, but then 1/3 of the quorum would suffice to block — however on something of this import, I trust our side will force the ‘Rats to gather the full Senate or drop it.
(Knowing the text of the Constitution does not suffice — the Founders expected the citizenry to be moderately well educated, and that includes being able to do simple arithmetic and reason soundly about things like arithmetic and the text of the Constitution.)
No, it does not. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 as quoted above in post 24, requires only 2/3 of Senators PRESENT for ratification. If there is but a minimum quorum of 51, that is 34.
You owe FR $1,000.
First, I never took the bet. Second, my original post simply asked whether you were worried we couldn’t get 34 Senators to block ratification — that is the number sufficient to block it with all the Senators present — nowhere did I assert that 67 Senators were needed to ratify the treaty. In my later post pointing to the 2/3 majority requirement I noted that a smaller number would be needed to block in the case where a mere quorum was present.
I do, however, see why you think my assertion of needing a vote of 2/3 of the Senate was incorrect — I am so used to the norms of parliamentary procedure that I assume “present and voting when a quorum is present” as the normal meaning of all such assertions unless they are modified to the contrary. (I was an old parliamentary-style debater in college, and function as the de facto parliamentarian for every deliberative body I sit on at the university where I am employed.) Requirements that a majority of the entire membership (or some super-majority proportion of the entire membership) vote in favor of some measure are so unusual they are always spelled out explicitly as such in by-laws of organizations that make such requirements.
I am 68 years old and have been expecting what is happening for most of my life. I am surprised only that it did not arrive sooner, I used to try to warn people but no one wanted to hear it, they thought it couldn’t happen in America!
I am no psychic or super genius but I follow a simple principle, if I see cars heading south through South Carolina on I-95 I have no way of knowing what exit they may take but I can know one thing for certain and that is that IF they continue to follow the same road going in the same direction they absolutely must arrive in Florida at some point, it is a question of when, not if and the when is determined by the average speed of travel. The same principle applies to nations traveling the path of bigger and bigger government, if they do not change direction then HELL ON EARTH will be their destination. I could see this country heading the wrong way when I was still a teenager and most Americans seemed quite content to keep going in the same direction.
That’s right, and these small victories matter a lot. As far as the Arms treaty, if that is used against the God given rights of Americans, then the time for political bs is over. Time to start shooting at that point.I really do not worry much about the Arms treaty.If a treaty with a foreign entity is ever attempted to be used to violate our rights, then the 2nd amendment isn’t just at stake. It’s ALL of our rights, and I won’t live under that kind of tyranny.
Interesting——this happened almost 2 full months ago, and there wasn’t a word on the MSM about it!!!
i read the treaty clause as no treaty can usurp the constitution... i will have to re read...
teeman
I've been a long time critic of the NRA, accusing them of flat out negotiating away our rights to own firearms, I may have to re-think my position now and actually join the NRA.
I’d love to say “true that!” but I’m not sure there are enough legislators OUTSIDE Chicago and CROOK COUNTY to make it happen and OVER-RIDE those crooked SOB’s!
When you do reread the supremacy clause, take care with the commas; it may not say what we all want it to mean. You see, we already have treaties on the books for over 70 years whose terms so wildly exceed constitutionally enumerated powers that you have a problem believing what you do. Some were ratified under conditions that were absolutely shocking. Every one has stood the (bogus) test of "settled law."
In fact, some of the Founders took major objection to the way that it was worded, but the Federalists rammed it through anyway because we needed the money and these were the terms our lenders apparently demanded. For some background on that consider this.
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