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
