I see your point. This needs work. The idea is that, henceforth, now warned about legislating from the bench, the Justices would exercise extreme caution before deciding to overturn any amendment to a state constitution. Seems to me we need the possibility of Court protection from a state gone berserk. Say the Greens capture Vermont, although I'd be just as worried about off the charts libertarians, or you name it. Anyway, your point is well taken. Oliver Wendell Billy =================================================== In a message dated 10/13/2010 7:31:11 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
So if 7 justices overturn a state referendum on Constitutional grounds, then all 7 of those are to be replaced? Clarification sought, please. Most of the rest of these I don't see much to argue with. David To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.--Thomas Jefferson On 10/12/2010 10:29 PM, [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) wrote: Constitutional Amendments for the 21st Century Some additional suggestions : ( 11 ) Supreme Court Rules-- ( i ) No referendum or state constitutional amendment, for any state, passed by the voters of that state, that is brought to the Court to seek its overturn on Constitutional grounds shall be declared as unconstitutional unless a minimum of 7 Justices out of 9 concur. ( ii ) All sitting justices who have previously voted to overturn voter approved state constitutional amendments shall hereby be retired from the Court on the grounds that such usurpation of the rights of states, such bad faith in the capability of drafters of state constitutional amendments, and such blatant contempt for the rights of voters in our American democracy, deserves nothing less. ( iii ) The House and Senate shall each be permitted to request the Court to hear the non-binding views of Justices on the Constitutionality of proposed legislation. The purpose shall be to do away with time consuming and costly litigation concerning controversial new laws. Each chamber shall be able to make 5 such requests each year at times of their choosing and the Justices shall comply within 30 days of the request. ( iv ) In no case shall the Court refer to foreign law of any kind in reaching decisions. This manifestly does not mean that any Justice is prohibited from study of foreign law but it does mean that the laws of other nations shall not be made use of for purposes of deciding American cases before the Court. One class of exception is allowed, when Justices concur by a minimum of 7 votes. ( 12 ) Congressional Rules -- ( i ) No bill being considered for enactment shall be voted upon unless the members have the opportunity to read it first. It shall be regarded as an impeachable offense not to read a bill voted on. There shall be 1 day granted for this purpose for each 50 pages of text, and a minimum of 2 days in all cases. ( ii ) The winning party in House elections shall be enabled to choose chairmen or chairwomen according to popular vote criteria. At this time each chamber has 20+ committees With a simple majority of less than 55 % , the winning party will have first choice for chairmanships for any 5 committees, all other committee chairmanships allotted alternatively between the two major parties. For example, if the Democrats were to win an election with a simple majority they would chose which 5 committees their members would chair, followed by a Republican choice , another Democratic choice, and so forth, until all committees had chairs appointed. Each additional 2-1/2 % of the vote and the number of "first choice" chairmanships would increase by one. For example, a victory margin of 59 % of total popular vote and the winning party would select the first 7 chairmanships. In the case of the Senate, given staggered elections, 2/3rds of all committee chairmanships would be held over and the remaining chairmanships apportioned in a similar manner according to popular vote percentages. ( iii ) No political party may nominate for office for any given election candidates who predominantly have one kind of professional background. No profession may be have more than 40 % of nominees. That is, lawyers of all kinds shall comprise a maximum of 40% of candidates for any political party. This applies to all other professions, such as academics together, such that the intent of this Amendment is not circumvented by considering professors of political science in a different professional category than professors of sociology or demography. This also applies to people in business, or anything else. ( 13 ) Primary Elections-- By common consent and tradition, Iowa shall hold the first caucus, followed by the New Hampshire presidential primary and primaries in South Carolina, Arizona, and Michigan. The Iowa caucus shall be held in mid January, the New Hampshire primary in late January, and the other primary contests shall be held in the month of February. In late February, one state, not to be repeated in this position until all other interested states are accommodated, shall hold its primary , similar to the example of Florida in 2008. After this each party shall select, in consultation with the other major party, which states shall hold their caucuses or primaries, but such that no more than 4 are scheduled for any given week in the month of March. After that the parties, in consultation , will be free to decide on any arrangement that they prefer, such as all remaining caucuses and primaries on one Super-Tuesday, or anything else. If any named state wishes to opt out of early primaries or a caucus, it is free to do so and the major political parties shall select one replacement, acting in consultation. In the case of a deadlock between the 2 major parties, the party with the 3rd highest votes will make the determination. ( 14 ) End of Endless Appeals in Capital Crimes. There is no justification for spending anywhere from $ 40,000 to $ 50,000+ per year, per prisoner, to incarcerate persons convicted of capital offenses, year after year, with no practical limit because of repeated legal appeals. The money could be spent far more wisely for other purposes. Henceforth, only one appeal will be allowed, such that, if the appeal fails, the execution shall take place a maximum of 2-1/2 years from date of conviction. This principle will apply to all other cases such that, only one appeal will be allowed for any felony conviction. ( 15 ) Immigration Reform Immigration shall be limited to a maximum of 1 million people for any given year. One half of that number must reflect the current demographic makeup of the population, one third based on America's professional needs, the remainder based on criteria such as uniting divided families, length of time on a waiting list, and so In all cases, priority shall be given to applicants for entry to the United States who can name a sponsor willing to vouch for his or her character and willing to guarantee the immigrant's debts. ALL illegal aliens shall be deported and the Federal Government shall have full responsibility to enforce all immigration laws including deportation of illegals. If it happens that the Federal Government does not do so in any calendar year, the states may act on their own to enforce the law until such time as the Federal Government shows it is willing to do so and establishes a record of compliance of at least 3 months. There may be exceptions proposed by the President , agreed to by the Congress, for political refugees or other special cases, but in no case or combination of cases, to exceed an additional 250,000 people in any calendar year. Congress may make a limited number of exceptions, for example, for children raised in the USA who are 18 years of age, or other worthy criteria, but not to exceed 100,000 people for all cases total, not yearly. The automatic citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment is hereby clarified to define "natural born" to mean a child born to parents who are US citizens, or, when appropriate, when at least one parent is a citizen and the other is actively seeking citizenship. This is not ex post facto and all grants of citizenship prior to passage of this Amendment are unaffected. Respectfully submitted Billy -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
