In the Senate, the culprit is the filibuster. Its history is long and labyrinthian, but, in the form it has assumed over the last 30 years or so, a supermajority of 60 votes is required for passage of any and all legislation. (The “nuclear option” weakened the filibuster when applied to some presidential appointments, but not to legislation.)

In the House, the source of gridlock is the unwritten code that gives the speaker the authority to block a vote on any bill that does not have the majority support of his or her party…

The current Congress is dysfunctional, then, largely because it has adopted procedures that systematically deny the rights of the majority in ways that violate the original intentions of the founders. The proper place to adjudicate this issue is neither the House nor the Senate but the Supreme Court, which is the ultimate arbiter of what the Constitution says and what the founders intended.

If by some miracle we could bring Madison back to testify to the high court in just such a proceeding, the “Father of the Constitution” would apprise the justices that the current modus operandi in Congress is not what he and his colleagues had in mind. In short, he would declare it unconstitutional.