The Bayh Subcommittee and the Warren Court

My research so far leads me to think that there is a connection between the Warren Court and Birch Bayh's Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. The link goes unnoticed for two reasons. First, law professors pay a lot more attention to the Supreme Court (especially the Warren Court). Second, you have to look at everything that the Bayh Subcommittee considered, not just on what they passed. They passed five proposed amendments. It's a small sample. But they held hearings on more than two dozen. And in those areas you see obvious links to the Warren Court's landmark cases (either supportive or not).

Another way of thinking about this is that people were just more open to constitutional change in the 1960s due to the Civil Rights Movement. This was true for abolishing the Electoral College, which was viewed by many a civil rights issue (more on that another time), as well as doctrine. That's the happy story. The unhappy part, which I'll talk about next week, is the role that violence played in the desire for constitutional change at that time.