US Congress now less popular than IRS, BP and a Communist Revolution

Well... no. I'm not entirely sure what specific point you were referring to, but any change to the way representatives or Senators are elected or removed from office would have to be via Constitutional amendment, which are very very very hard to pull off. There have been twenty-seven since the ratification of the original document, ten of which happened pretty much right away. So basically 17.

Oh, look, a pagetopper. Awesome.

edited 2nd Dec '11 8:14:48 PM by Chalkos

Not to mention how 2 of those 17 essentially cancel each other out (prohibition and repeal of said prohibition)

I believe it's possible for the states to bypass Congress to make an amendment, but it requires at least 3/4ths of them to agree. As others have said, it's never been done before and is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Oh, I thought we were talking about alternate processes to amend the Constitution.

In theory, the states can first mobilize and force Congress to create another Philadelphia Convention, and then have the rest of the states sign the meeting results. But that's only for amending the Constitution, not for statutory laws.

In order for states to pass federal laws, they need to explicitly create a process using an amendment. Then the state governments can stand up against the US Congress.

I honestly don't know why they don't attempt to do this more if they're dissatisfied with the Congress. The states still have the sovereignty to make ultimate decisions.

edited 2nd Dec '11 9:18:19 PM by abstractematics

The sovereignty of our individual states is... a thorny issue. But no, as it currently stands states do not have the final authority; federal law trumps state law in most cases. Now, the way that states could force a new convention and thus Constitutional amendment probably had more teeth way back when they were more independent by necessity (what with the tech of the time pretty much requiring they be able to make their own decisions or wait several months for orders.)

As it is now, the only way it seems we have to force things is through mass protest and sharp social/cultural change. And mass voting out of people we see as bums.