[billbears]

Going furhter, should the State of North Carolina, if it did not have a state Constitutional clause that affirmed the right to bear arms, be allowed to grab every gun in the state? Should it, if it did not have a state Constitutional clause that prohibited the forced quartering of soldiers during peacetime, be allowed to force you to take in a soldier in peacetime? Should it, if it did not have a state Constitutional clause that prohibited the taking of private property without just compensation, be allowed to take private property without just compensation?

The Bill of Rights covers issues at the federal level that the states are not allowed to touch. However, you've forgotten the most important one. The Tenth Amendment. It applied before 1860 and although liberals and conservatives of all sorts have run roughshod over it to further their agenda, however limited it has become it applies today and in this case particularly

[steveegg]

Amendment X:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

As the election of Senators IS delegated by the Constitution, it does not fall under the purview of the Tenth Amendment.