This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, January 21st, 2010. I'm Caleb Brown.

The Constitution is one of the greatest achievements in Western history, creating a government

constrained by the very passions that

power inspires. Bob Levy is chairman of the Cato Institute. This is the second

part of an extended discussion we had in November on a variety of subjects rooted in the Constitution's

delegations of power and protections of rights. Part of the brilliance of the

Constitution as it was written was that in crafting it every part of the Constitution

had a defender with overlapping powers over somebody else somewhere in the Constitution.

The Commerce Clause is one of those, arguably, and I think Madison wrote about this, that the selection of U.S. Senators by state legislatures

actually was going to be a sufficient check on encroaching federal power.

That's no longer the case. Senators are elected directly in the same manner that

U.S. representatives are.

Yes, thanks to the 17th Amendment.

Of course, there's some movement now, particularly with the focus on the Constitution

that has arisen as a result of the Tea Parties, some movement to revisit

the 17th Amendment and restore the Senate election process to state legislatures re-establishing the notion of

federalism. I frankly doubt that that movement's going to get very far

although I also think it would be a good idea if it did get a little further.

One of the risks, of course, is that the process by which the Constitution is amended

is that it requires two-thirds of both houses to propose amendments then they have to be

ratified by three-fourths of the states.

That is the only way by which amendments have come to pass.

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