[Ask the Gulch] People complain but in 200 plus years and more have never thought it important enough to amend the Constitution on a variety of subjects. What's your favorite candidate?
Mylist would start by replacing people with citizens for census purposes followed by putting the old versions in the back and showing the amended version in the front. That way northern democrats would not have to keep apologizing for the 3/5ths rule. I might also like to see a mandatory first page to all congressional bills. Title, One paragraph mission statement or statement of intent and extent. Next Constitutional Cite to check validity. Estimated Cost and finally Source of Funding. Two other add ons might be if a dollar is taken from A to fund B then how does that affect C since A no longer has a dollar to spend in their store? the crowining touch would be denying anything which did not fit the description in the Mission Statement.
My last submission is initiative, referendum and recall for all States specifically including State Delegates to the US Congress.
Your turn!
My last submission is initiative, referendum and recall for all States specifically including State Delegates to the US Congress.
Your turn!
Previous comments... You are currently on page 3.
I like the sunset-law idea.
Re: plea bargaining, its main effect is to increase the severity of sentences while removing due process, because the DA can file charges that go outrageously too far for what he thinks you did, then offer you a bargain that you have to take. That needs to stop. But I have no problem with standard, moderate fines for minor crimes (we call those "infractions" in California, vs. a misdemeanor which carries potential jail time but < 1 year).
I agree that there are too many felonies, and excessive punishment in general. But I don't know a good way to protect against these things in a constitution. You would think that the 8th Amendment would be enough, but it hasn't been.
Darn it, why couldn't Bill Gates have been one of us?
I you want to help you can contact me: Larry at TheSocietyProject.org
What the 16th Amendment changes is how the Income Taxes collected can be spent. Before the 16th Amendment, any collected income tax would need to be spent equally on everyone. More importantly, the Government was accountable for spending the money equally, and for refunding any money spent unequally back to the taxpayers.
The 16th Amendment made it so that Income Taxes could be spent however they wanted, regardless of it being equal or not.
So people confuse the Before and the After of the 16th Amendment with Causality. Before the 16th, very few Income Taxes. After, there were a lot of income taxes! So most people assume that it legalized Income Taxes.
But the truth is that there weren't Income Taxes before the 16th because it was so difficult to spend the money, not because they were illegal.
I was appalled to learn that the text of a law could be amended (to the degree of 100% changed) in committee - after it was voted on and approved. This should cease. And everyone who votes on a bill or law should have to sign a statement that says that he read and understood the full damn thing.
Also, any money voted to finance a specific program must go to that specific program and there is no need to have wording in every act and bill to insure that - there is a strong default for the money to go for the voted use and only for that use.
Laws have expiration dates. I would suggest that laws expire 10 or 20 years after they are passed. If the public wants that law again, they can pass it again. Right now, we accrete laws like a mudball rolling down a leafy hillside. We have to reverse this tendency.
I disagree with you on plea bargaining. I think that there should be a standard vending-machine plea bargain for misdemeanors. If you spare the court the hassle and overhead of a trial, you get whatever the vending machine plea bargain is. (And the number of felonies should be TINY. It is currently a felony in CA to put a false registration stamp on your license plate, for example...!)
Jan
this Constitution is hereby repealed."--Also, perhaps, an Amendment stating :"The purpose of
government is to protect man from force (including fraud) and/or
violence, and punish same;any government
in the United States, whether Federal, State, or
municipal, shall not have a law that does not pur-
sue such purpose. Also,under this Constitution,
"man" shall represent human beings of whatev-
er age or sex." Also,an Amendment abolishing eminent domain throughout the United States.--But not even for these things would I be for a new Constitutional Convention during the present age. It is far too dangerous. We might lose the Bill of Rights; there are also those who would set up a theocracy.
Clarify the Fourth Amendment to include digital possessions as being subject to the requirement of a warrant.
Clarify the Fifth Amendment to categorically reject the notion that government may use the power of eminent domain over private property only to turn that private property over to any entity other than the government entity declaring eminent domain in the first place.
Clarify the Sixth Amendment to apply only to 1) citizens and 2) foreign visitors in the country legally.
Clarify the Eighth Amendment to state that capital punishment is neither cruel nor unusual punishment.
Clarify the Tenth Amendment to state that ALL federal bureaucracies both present and future must cite in their charters the precise Constitutional basis for their formation and that upon successful challenge in the Supreme Court as to the Constitutionality of such, that Federal Bureaucracy is summarily dissolved and its rulings vacated.
Clarify the Eleventh Amendment to state that the United States is not subject to any supra-national organization's rule-making, law-making, or judicial procedures.
Repeal the Twelfth Amendment. (The threat of Presidential Impeachment and Conviction are totally hamstrung by this provision. Further, it encourages a two-party system.)
Clarify the Fourteenth Amendment to say that citizens of the United States are those who are born to at least one American parent. (Eliminate the anchor-baby notion).
Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment.
Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment. (This one eliminates the role of State Legislatures in the Federal Government and eliminated a major check on Federal expansionism.)
Amend the Twentieth Amendment. Suspend the operations of the House, Senate and Executive beginning the day of election. Allow for their resumption once a quorum has been re-established according to the results of the elections. (Eliminate lame duck actions by all branches of government)
Amend the Twenty-fourth Amendment to state that voting is only open to eligible citizens of the United States and that the individual States are responsible for certifying that ineligible votes have been struck from the tallies. A failure to do so may result in the refusal of seating of that State's delegations to the House and Senate.
Amend the Twenty-seventh Amendment to place remuneration and salaries of officials elected to Federal positions and their staffs to be paid for by the individual States for whom they act as representatives, including all offices and operating expenses.
Create a Twenty-eighth Amendment affirming the right of free association of private individuals shall not be infringed by government without proving strict scrutiny. The rights of various private associations including businesses and religious entities to determine their own membership policies, procedures, etc. shall be strictly respected, but disciplinary actions are restricted to limitations of privilege or expulsion.
I would also clarify the General Welfare clause, the Commerce Clause, and the Supremacy Clause, but I have to do a little more re-writing on how those would come out.
I do not have any confidence that a modern constitutional convention will not emerge with a new document and then start steam rolling the process of adoption. Given the fact that the country is far more tolerant of big government than it was in 1787, you can bet it will be a socialist manifesto.
I have a good sized list of amendments I'd like to put in.
# No government, at any level, may outlaw a behavior merely because it is risky to the person doing it -- that is, if you're an adult you get to make your own choices about risk to yourself. The "public safety", for any purpose, does not include or require the elimination of risks so assumed. (This also limits the scope of states' police power.)
# No sumptuary laws.
# No bans or restrictions on any food, drug, or other substance. FDA can still require accurate ingredients labeling, but can't forbid any truthful statement on a label. Local governments can still restrict bars and similar businesses (but you can buy whatever you want and use it at home).
# Restore freedom of contract (as per Lochner v. New York).
# Incorporate Federalist #39 and #41, and probably others, into the Constitution (thus forcing strict construction).
# Interstate commerce means only particular activities that actually extend into more than one state AND are conducted for profit.
# The 16th Amendment is repealed and not replaced by anything. (We don't need any more government than we had in 1911.)
# No more spending federal money for purposes not spelt out in the Constitution (and "general welfare" does not count). Federal government gives up any control over state and local governments that was "attached as strings" to federal spending.
# In Article I, Section 8, the "post offices" clause is amended to add that government may not forbid competition with any postal service. Also, "post roads" is narrowed to just authorize a national highway system.
# Federal government must divest all land outside DC not in use as military bases. Sell it by auction or give it to the state it's in.
# Government must sell off the radio spectrum, and never similarly monopolize any communications medium again. It may keep ownership of frequencies it uses for governmental purposes, but not more than 20% of the total spectrum (I need to put in a good technical definition).
# No tax money may be spent to convince people of any point of view. This includes such things as anti-smoking campaigns and the advocacy groups funded by VAWA.
# Require at least intermediate scrutiny for any exception to the Constitution (no more rational basis test for any purpose).
# Abolish the third-party doctrine (that is, 4th and 5th amendment rights now apply to data you've entrusted to the phone company or others like them).
# Extend the 5th Amendment so a person can refuse to provide any evidence that may adversely affect him or his family (no more compelling Barry Bonds or tobacco executives to destroy their careers by testifying in front of Congress). This would not protect government officials, though.
# No restrictions on discrimination by private persons or organizations.
# The Supreme Court is fixed at 9 seats, and if any president appoints more than three members, all but the first three shall have their terms expire 60 days after that president leaves office. (This is to prevent any further threats to "pack the Court", something that both FDR and Obama have threatened to do.)
# Give the Supreme Court the power to remove a president who disobeys its orders (as Andrew Jackson did when he carried out the Indian Removal Act).
# Require voter approval, IN ADDITION to the legislative approval now required, for all constitutional amendments, all treaties, and all laws on certain controversial topics (such as abortion and gun control). This applies to my new amendments as well, including itself.
# Require all alliances with other countries to be re-approved by voters every 10 years (but provide reasonable notice, say 5 years, if we pull out of one as a result). This also is in addition to legislative approval.
# Give Congress (and voters per the above), not the president, complete control of foreign policy and war.
# Limit each year's spending to the previous year's actual revenue (a balanced-budget amendment that can't be cheated on).
# Give individual victims of any crime (or heirs if the victim is dead) the right to prosecute, and strip all police, prosecutors, and judges of all forms of immunity. Also abolish sovereign immunity. The Constitution would thus become an actual binding contract, enforceable against those who swear to uphold it.
# Add an explicit Rule of Lenity (that is, any law that is open to interpretation must be read in the way most favorable to the person accused of breaking that law).
# When a police officer or other official is tried for unnecessary force or exceeding his authority, the presumption that his civilian opponent is innocent shall trump the presumption that the official is innocent. This modifies the Rule of Lenity, too.
# No use of SWAT teams, no-knock raids, raids in the middle of the night, or other terror tactics unless there is good reason to believe they are actually necessary to prevent harm to officers or destruction of evidence.
# No use of batons, pepper spray, Tasers, or any other weapon except in reply to actual or threatened unlawful use of force by the target.
# No "stress" interrogation techniques.
# Police departments shall be fully liable for any use of force, including any search, arrest, or detention, or for taking away any liberty, unless the victim is then convicted of a crime serious enough to justify it. (If the police action was the result of a false accusation, the accuser shall be fully liable too.)
# Make police misconduct cases and their results public information, and ban those convicted from ever holding police authority anywhere again.
# No person can do wrong by resisting the unlawful use of force by police or anyone else.
# If a police officer or other official conceals any part of his badge or otherwise interferes with a person who would identify him so that he can be prosecuted or sued, that official's authority becomes null and void, and force may be used against him.
# An accused person's right to pay an attorney must trump any seizure of money or property unless it has been proven not to be rightfully his.
# Expressly allow juries to nullify, and forbid judges from giving orders (or removing a juror) to prevent it. Make a hung jury count as an acquittal (no retrial allowed).
# Prevent judges from excluding any statement a defendant wants to offer in his own defense.
# Abolish plea bargaining and make prosecutors actually try every case.
# "Loser pays" (both attorneys) in all civil and criminal cases, except where the winner is a rich (or government) plaintiff and the defendant is non-rich.
# Increase the standard of proof in civil cases to proof beyond a reasonable doubt if more than $1,000 (indexed for inflation) is at stake.
# No government entity may obtain more than 10% of its revenue by fines or penalties of any kind.
# Fines, or seized property, shall never go to government. Where they don't go to a victim, they shall be donated to an unrelated charity. This is to prevent enforcement actions from being taken for selfish gain.
# Tax agencies shall not have direct collection authority. That is, they must get a court order before seizing any money or property.
# Property cannot commit a crime. The practice of "civil forfeiture" is abolished forever, and all property ever so seized must be returned.
# There shall be no law, at any level of government, limiting the number of people or companies in any line of business. Where an occupation is licensed, a public safety need for every requirement of that license must be shown, and strict scrutiny applies. Licenses may not be denied for unrelated reasons.
# There shall be no laws restricting an owner's use of his property, except the common law of nuisances. (Thus no zoning or "urban planning".) Building permits may be required, but a public safety need for every requirement they carry must be shown, and strict scrutiny applies. Permits may not be denied for unrelated reasons.
# Concealed carry permits and drivers' licenses may not be refused to anyone except for public-safety reasons specific to that individual, and any refusal may be appealed.
# There shall be no laws that allow "bounty hunting" lawsuits by persons not materially affected (for example, ADA).
# Class actions as they now exist are banned. Plaintiffs may still sue as a group, but represent only individuals who expressly opt in.
# Abolish administrative law. Congress must approve all rules itself.
# No debtors' prison. No exceptions for child support or anything else.
# No stop-and-frisk, and no checkpoints except at actual borders. (This is already in the Constitution but is being disregarded. That has to be fixed.)
# The Second Amendment is extended to all weapons except WMDs. Local communities are allowed and encouraged to form militias that they control. (Like state militias these may be called up by the President in time of war or national emergency, but are independent unless and until that happens.)
# Emergency powers belong to Congress, not the President, while Congress is in session. Either Congress or the courts may overturn any declaration of emergency if, in their opinion, the facts don't justify it.
This is just a start. I like most of the other ideas here, too.
First: let's put the Senate back the way it was: as an assembly of representatives of State legislatures, not "elected by the people."
Second: make Senators recallable by the States who sent them, for any reason or no reason, according to the said State's own laws.
Next: require each bill to cite the Constitutional authority therefor.
Next: strike the Congressional power to establish post offices and ost roads. I find that provision obsolete and overtaken by technology.
Next: provide specifically for Congressional power to provide for and maintain air and space forces, to make laws for the government thereof, to provide for calling forth any Air and Space Militia, to provide for organizing, training, and disciplining the said Air and Space Militia, to exercise exclusive legislation over such places as may be purchased, etc., etc., for the construction of air bases, space launch sites, training facilities, and other needful buildings. Then make clear exactly that armies the Congress may raise or support and make plain that Congress may raise no other uniformed services except as enumerated. Which means: abolish the Public Health Service and the Office of the Surgeon General. (Likewise, make the President the CinC of the air and space forces, in addition to the army and navy.)
Repeal Amendment XVI, the Income Tax.
Restrict the power to borrow money, and provide a repayment plan for the current debts.
But you could choose to not support all of the above. Unfortunately justice under the law is very very very expensive. I guess we need a sugar daddy or two or three. Seems like they are all on the other side.
Which reminds me just who IS the part of the rich? Gates, his partners, Mr. CNN, I can't truthfully think of a single billionaire who isn't a leiftist.
They were replaced by three little words...suspicion of terrorism.
which requires no probable cause, no proof or offer of proof, no warrant, no judge, no court, no defense attorney, And there is no requirement to admit to having made such an apprehension.
Number Two. I don't think the title included a convention. I just looked. No it doesn't. It includes "IF you could amend the constitution what amendments would youoffer. Back on track please. A little thoughtful dejavu
How about making it a high crime to avoid the amendment procedure? To publicly state you want to find a way around the Constitution. That was Clinton, To claim a power not granted because the supreme court hasn't visited that section yet? That was Obama.
What changes would you recommend?
How about take out the constitutional amendment section?
Mr. Soros would like a change that gives him the righ to buy votes of the voters and of the Congress or even buy the President.
His swami Yoda YackOff would like the right without explanation to take all your rights without exception. Looks like that one was granted without using the amendment procedure. Re-read the first paragraph.
On the other hand, individual amendments that can be debated and voted on are fine, and we do it all the time.
My favorite is the "line item veto".
I don't think the framers of the constitution envisioned multi-thousand page budget bills that had to be signed or vetoed as a whole.
I believe they thought if someone wanted to build a bridge they would pass a bill for a bridge and the president would either sign it or veto it.
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with their own money."
-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859)
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
Delegates are sent to the convention with specific instructions as to the scope of the amendments to be proposed, the application for the convention MUST be the same in intent for ALL of the 2/3 of the states to call for the convention, this is NOT an OPEN convention. Any amendments proposed by such a Convention of the States MUST then be ratified by 2/3 of the several States.
I don't realistically see the danger of 37 states sending delegates to a Convention of the States to commit suicide.
*notice what I did and did not capitalize.