September 1967

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November 1967

Calendar Eyes and Ears of the League President's Page (Mary George) October Units Information (Ann Machovina) Notices Transportation Anybody??? Good News Is Getting Around! - Ethics (Barbara Furniss) Do You Like to Read? Human Resources (Carol Greenspan) Continuing Responsibilities - Apportionment of State Legislatures (Tosh Tasaka) Attention New Members and Guests Help! - Nominating Committee (Evelyn Oishi)

Continuing Responsibilities - Apportionment of State Legislatures Of vital interest to all of us is the subject of apportionment. As you know, the League supports apportionment of both houses of state legislatures substantially on population. There has been a move for constitutional amendment to allow one house to be apportioned on factors other than population. Several House Joint Resolutions have been introduced in the 90th Congress. Thirty-two state legislatures have passed resolutions for Congress to call a constitutional convention for this purpose. Article V of the Constitution provides that Congress (1) by a two-thirds vote of both Houses or (2) on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states (34) shall call a convention for proposing amendments which, when ratified by three-fourths of the states (38), shall be valid. There is no precedent for calling a convention on applications of the states and thus several questions arise: May a constitutional convention, be called for the purpose of proposing an amendment already drafted and may it be so instructed? Are these petitions, unless they call for a general, deliberative convention, constitutionally valid? If you'd like more information on apportionment, League publications -National Continuing Responsibilities 1966-1968 (40¢) and Current Review of Continuing Responsibilities No. 8 (50¢) are available. Tosh Tasaka

September 1967

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November 1967