Noah Feldman, Columnist

Revamping the Senate Is a Fantasy

Small states used their leverage at the constitutional convention to permanently lock in their power.

October 10, 2018 at 4:39 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

A topsy-turvy idea.
Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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As the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh made its painful way through the Senate, a number of liberals began to make an important discovery: The U.S. Senate is undemocratic. Small states get the same quantity of senators as large states. It’s often added that the ratio of population between the largest and the smallest states was “only” 12 to 1 when the Constitution was first adopted. Now it is 68 to 1. (California to Wyoming, in case you’re counting.)

Dissatisfaction with this aspect of constitutional design fits in with leftover frustration over the Electoral College in 2016. Together these nonmajoritarian flaws are breeding demands for change. Something must be done, the critics say, to avoid rendering the Supreme Court, presidency and perhaps the entire Constitution illegitimate.