Sunday Morning in New Diary

I was up early again. This time it was 3:45a.m. I don’t like getting up this early. I don’t know what to do with myself this early. I don’t like getting up when it is still dark. I’m not sleepy so it is pointless going back to bed . So I will be up.

I had a good night. I spent an hour or so reading. I was reading about Earl Warren. The author was talking about how for a very long time the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government. The Warren Court heard a series of cases that changed all that. I think he used the 14th Amendment to accomplish this goal. Incorporation was one of the greatest legacies of the Warren Court

I couldn’t tell you much about what I read. It is way over my head in many places. I go over the same material several times and I still can’t remember half of what I read. It is very frustrating But I intend to read that sucker I will finish it

Went over my budget for July. I think I will be ok. After all expenses I might have thirty-forty dollars left over. I even have money for a couple of books. As long as I have money for one or two books I am happy with my budget. I get my check pay my bills buy food and I’m usually broke by the middle of the month. I always make it through,. There is no need to worry.

I tell myself that but I still worry. I worry about everything. I can’t help myself. I know worrying doesn’t do any good. I know worrying only makes me sick since it leads to anxiety. Nothing or nobody causes this I do this to myself But I sit and worry and end up making myself sick with anxiety. I do this to myself all the frigging time.

One reason read so much is that I am not thinking about crap. When I’m not dwelling on crap I am not worrying. I get lost in a book. Reading is a wonderful way to escape from ones problems. For example , I was reading about Earl Warren yesterday and got caught up with the Warren Court I forgot about things. I’ve always said books are the best drug because they take you into another world .

Well today is Sunday. I will probably spend most of it reading Life is good

6:30am I’ve been reading. I’m still on Chapter 4 in America’s Unwritten Constitution. I’m on a section where the author discuses the right to vote. Akil Reed Amar was saying that the Warren Court heard a lot of cases about this subject. The Court ruled that in both federal and both branches of state legislates there should be a strict one person one vote policy. This was nothing short of a revolution in the 1960s and went far beyond what the Founders envisioned.

Amar gives a brief history about the right to vote phrase. This phrase does not appear in the original Constitution. Amar writes that state law determined who should vote . If a person could vote for his state legislature then he could vote in federal elections. Also, state legislatures would elect U.S senators and decide how presidential electors should be selected.

Also, I was reading that states had property qualifications. Men had to own a certain amount of property before they could be eligible to vote. This was in the form of land. Land values varied across the country. Any fixed national property qualifications would have been too high in some places and too low in others. If the federal government had a blanket rule for property qualifications it would have been outside the 1780s norm.

Then there was the issue of race. The author says that some states permitted free blacks to vote on equal terms. Others did not. Many southern states were very unwilling to give the federal government authority over this sensitive an issue .

So it was the states and not the federal government who determined who could vote in elections.

Last updated June 14, 2015