Talk:Article One of the United States Constitution

Powers delegated by states?

In the text relating to Section 8, there is this:

These three clauses have been interpreted so broadly that the federal government of the United States exercises many powers that are not expressly delegated to it by the states under the Constitution

Is this view that the Federal government has powers delegated by the states commonly accepted? Or is this an NPOV violation? The preamble says that it is the people, not the states, that formed the federal government, and Article VII is essentially the people deciding that they would require 9 states to agree to the framework for it to be adopted. Christianbstevens (talk) 19:10, 21 July 2022 (UTC)

Elections

There is no historic context included in the section about elections. For most of US history there were no elections for US Senators. In fact US Senators were appointed by the state legislatures for most of US history and became electable only recently. Previous versions of the Constitution mentioned election of Representatives but not of Senators because of this. It needs to be noted that there was no election for Senators in any of the states until the passage of the 17th amendment in 1913, 124 years after the original Constitution was ratified. The section should be edited because it can cause people to think that US Senators were always elected or intended to be elected when that just isn't true. At the time section was ratified the founders intended the clause on Congressional power to regulate elections to apply only to the House of Representatives.

Nor does it reference the fact that clause specifically states that Congress does not have power to regulate elections for Senators as seen at the end of the first paragraph for Section 4. The failure to mention this in the narrative of the section can and has led people to falsely assume that Congress has power over US Senate elections when it does not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.25.97.125 (talk) 18:52, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

I inserted a small paragraph about the senators and a reference to the Republican Guarantee Clause that even though Congress cannot regulate Senate elections directly, it still has power via the republican guarantee clause to prevent discrimination in voting laws. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.25.97.125 (talk) 19:21, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

This is all interesting information, but I had to revert your contribution to the article. All material in the article is required to be sourced - add a citation to a source where readers can verify that what is written there has been derived from a reliable source, other than the editor him/herself. Please research what you've proposed above, and find reliable sources that back up those claims. You're welcome to post those sources here and show how they verify the many claims above, and we can help you craft the addition so that it fits appropriately into the article. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 20:07, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

"Interesting" is a kind word for it. That reverted edit completely disregarded the wording of the clause. "Wishful thinking," I'd call it. Please don't make up stuff to push your political agenda or pet theories; that's not what an encyclopaedia is for. Richard75 (talk) 12:50, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

To be perfectly honest, I only read a few sentences of the contribution, as my familiarity with Article One is weak (much to my shame), so I simply went with AGF and 'needs cites' as there obviously weren't any. Reading further into it, yeah - politically-motivated screed, written in polite language. Sigh. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 18:38, 18 October 2022 (UTC)