Missed MBEs

Question 1

Section 5 of 14A

Answer 1

The Section 5 Enabling Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits Congress to pass legislation to enforce the equal protection and due process rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, as long as there is “congruence and proportionality” between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to achieve that end. Congress may override state government action that infringes upon Fourteenth Amendment rights, but it may not regulate wholly private conduct under this amendment.

Question 2

Dormant Commerce Clause

Answer 2

Congress may explicitly permit states to act in ways that would otherwise violate the Dormant Commerce Clause

Question 3

State primaries

Answer 3

A state cannot require a local party to participate in an open primary (i.e., a primary in which any voter in the state may vote in a political party’s primary) to choose presidential electors where the national party has required that electors must be chosen only by party members. In addition, a state may not prohibit a political party from allowing independents to vote in its primary.