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Comment by frob | Hacker News Reader

From everything I could tell, one of the reasons Sen Feinstein was sticking around was that the GOP had indicated it would not allow Senate Democrats to replace her on the Judiciary committee. This would deadlock the committee, effectively stalling all judicial appointments and confirmations.

That was in the case of a retirement. This is a death and reappointment. I am unsure if the new Senator would assume Sen Feinstein's previous committee assignments, but all of my instincts around the Senate say no. So we are back in the position of relying on the GOP to allow the new Senator to fully serve and represent the 39 million citizens of California. If you know anything about the modern GOP and their despise for democracy, you know they will never let that happen.

Sorry, California, the 39 million of you only get 1.3 senators for the next 15 months. The 576 thousand people of Wyoming will still get their full 2.

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I can't remember where I heard this, but the reason that every state gets 2 senators goes back to the creation of the United States. If they didn't allow equal representation, why would any state join if they immediately started with less than equal rep? For example, why would a small state with a population 10x less than New York for example, join the US and accept 10x less senators.

Caveat - I'm not American and have never taken a US history class. This is just something I heard on a podcast.

This is more or less correct. The idea was that all states were to have equal amounts of sovereignty, regardless of population. Bodies like the UN only have 1 delegate at a time. Well, the US allows them to have a backup in the Senate.

Also, the intended function of the Senate was to oversee process and senators were selected by state legislators. They are not supposed to originate legislation. But it got a bit twisted up since then.

I think this is a bit off. I don't think the GOP in the Senate can stop California from appointing Feinstein's replacement, or keep them from being admitted to the Senate. They can keep the replacement from being appointed to the Judiciary Committee, but that is not an inherent right for senators from California.

Correct.

California can appoint an interim Senator (per their constitutional & laws - I believe the governor does it without any approval from other parties).

Committee appointment is by Senate rules. There's no automatic right to a seat on a committee. Judiciary is a massively important committee because it oversees the approval of federal judges (without committee approval, the nominees never get to the floor for a vote).

The GOP can block a committee replacement via filibuster. The Democrats could attempt a rules package to prevent filibuster, but Manchin (D-WV) has historically been against those.

That is because Joe Manchin can still think independently and understands the value of the filibuster to the independent minority.

> Sorry, California, the 39 million of you only get 1.3 senators for the next 15 months. The 576 thousand people of Wyoming will still get their full 2.

The purpose of a senator is to represent the state, not the people. That's why in the US Constitution it says that senators will be elected by state legislators (later changed by the 17th amendment to be elected by the people).

Representatives represent the people. That's why the number of representatives is proportional to the population of the state, and the senators are proportional to the states (there's approx. 1 state per state).

> Sorry, California, the 39 million of you only get 1.3 senators for the next 15 months.

No they get two. Just as Wyoming, which is how the country has always worked and is the only reason the country exists in the first place. I’ve no idea where you pulled “1.3” from but this has always been and remains such an insufferable talking point from left leaning people, the United States is just that, a republican union of states, larger states specifically should not be able to impose their rule on smaller states.

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