ment proposed does not involve a violation of the
Constitution of the United States. For a constitution adopted by the
people of a State in so far as it violates the Constitution of the
United States is void, for exactly the same reason that an Act passed
by a State Legislature is void if it is contrary to some provision
in the Constitution of the United States. This is so because the
Constitution of the United States in the Sixth Article directs that
"This Constitution ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and
the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

But any amendment with a single exception, which is proposed by
Congress, no matter what it may be, if it has received the two-thirds
vote of both Houses and has been ratified by the Legislatures of
three-fourths of the States, or of three-fourths of the conventions in
the several States, according as Congress has submitted it in the one
way or the other, is valid irrespective of any provision that can be
found in any State Constitution or law. The one exception to which
reference has been made is that no change can be made which would
deprive a State of its right to equal representation in the Senate.
As it is, the Senate is composed of two Senators from each state. New
York and Nevada, the one with a population of 9,113,614, and the other
with a population of 81,875 are entitled to equal representation in
that body, and that equality of representation cannot be destroyed by
any amendment not assented to by all the States. The reason is that
the Constitution expressly declares in the Fifth Article--the one
which deals with amendments--"that no State, without its consent,
shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." This provision
was incorporated into the Constitution at the suggestion of Roger
Sherman of Connecticut. Certain other restrictions were imposed
which now have become unimportant, but which at the time were of the
greatest possible importance. It was provided that no amendment was to
be made prior to the year 1808 which should prohibit the States from
further importation of slaves, and that no capitation or other direct
tax should be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration
of the inhabitants of the states in which three-fifths only of the
slaves were included. So we see that the founders withdrew from the
possibilities of amendment the sub