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By Roger Copple
07 March, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Countercurrents.org
Our current
constitution, which was written during the summer of 1787, and
implemented in 1789, needs, at the very least, to be updated and written
in a simple and clear way, so that citizens can be empowered. Much of
our current constitution deals with matters that are no longer relevant,
such as the embarrassing references to any slave as being counted as
3/5 of a person. Before I propose my Twenty-Eighth Amendment, which
simplifies and revises Article V of our current Constitution, I will
display Article V immediately below, so that you can be reminded of its
tortuous, vague, and confusing words.
Article V of the US Constitution
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.
[End of Article V in our current Constitution]
What the latter part of Article V
specifically states is that no amendment could be made before 1808 that
prohibits the importation of slaves. Do we want that kind of statement
to remain in our current, supreme civil document?
This Twenty-Eighth Amendment proposal
includes some of the features that are found in Article V in our current
Constitution, but it also simplifies, clarifies, and changes Article V
as well. Article V is the only part of our current Constitution that
tells how we can add amendments to the Constitution. Unfortunately, it
does not address how we can abolish our government as Thomas Jefferson
said we have a right to do in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson
expressed that every new generation should have a new constitution.
My amendment proposal is printed below,
followed by a second constitutional amendment proposal by some members
of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Others such as the Friends of the
Article V Convention attest that Congress is obligated right now by
order of the Supreme Court to allow the 50 state legislatures to have a
national Amendment Convention in order to vote on various amendments
that have already been proposed. The balanced budget amendment is one
such proposal.
A Proposal for a Twenty-Eighth Amendment (Latest Revision, 3-5-12 )
Revision of ARTICLE V: How to Change or Abolish the U.S. Constitution
The United States government can be
modified through amendments added to its current Constitution. It can
also be changed when Congress passes new federal laws. But to change the
federal government completely, there has to be a Constitutional
Convention to rewrite a totally new constitution.
To change the federal government by
merely adding amendments to the current constitution, there are two ways
that this can be done:
In the first way, both Houses of the
United States Congress must pass the proposed amendment with a 3/4
majority. This is higher than the 2/3 majority required by both Houses
before. However, Congress will no longer need ¾ of the state
legislatures to approve. This method bypasses the state legislatures
altogether.
The second way to add amendments to the
current Constitution is for 2/3 of the state legislatures to call for a
national Amendment Convention for any reasons. Once a state makes a
request for a convention, that request cannot be rescinded. Each state
legislature shall choose one person to attend the national Amendment
Convention that should not last longer than three months.
State delegates at the first Amendment
Convention will discuss, rewrite, and vote on over 700 applications
(many cover the same subject) made by more than ¾ of the state
legislatures over the years since 1789. The state delegates cannot
create new amendments. They must deal with the specific subjects of the
amendments that have already been submitted.
Congress though mandated several times
by the Supreme Court has ignored the requests of state legislatures for
an Amendment Convention. Therefore, the first Amendment Convention will
be held within 3 months after this Twenty-Eighth Amendment Proposal is
approved.
If the delegates at the Amendment
Convention approve of any amendment proposals with at least a 51%
majority, after working for a maximum of 3 months, then those amendment
proposals will be submitted to the state legislatures. A new amendment
will be added to the current Constitution whenever 2/3 of the state
legislatures ratify it.
If a state legislature casts it vote
early on an amendment proposal already approved by the delegates at the
Amendment Convention, it may change its mind if the 2/3 majority has not
yet been reached. If the state legislatures have not passed a proposed
amendment within a year, it will become null and void. This second
method for adding new amendments to the current Constitution bypasses
the US Congress altogether.
The Constitution is the supreme law of
the land. As mentioned in the first paragraph of this Twenty-Eighth
Amendment, a radically new constitution and government can be formed,
not through an Amendment Convention, but through a Constitutional
Convention. Neither an Amendment Convention nor a Constitutional
Convention has ever been tried in the history of our current
Constitution. But both can now be achieved in a fair, orderly, and
nonviolent way as a result of this Twenty-Eighth Amendment.
The American people have a right to
amend the Constitution without extreme difficulty, and they have a right
to make a new government based upon an entirely new constitution.
Therefore, the decision to create a new supreme document will be
considered by the American people at every presidential election.
If at least 51% of the American voters
request a Constitutional Convention at the time a new president is
elected, then every citizen eligible to vote for a U.S. president shall
register with a national political party within 9 months afterwards (The
website www.politics1.com has a
comprehensive Directory of U.S. Political Parties). The Constitutional
Convention will start meeting 3 months later or one year after the
previous presidential election. The Constitutional Convention delegates
will meet at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. There will be 50
delegates chosen by the system of Proportional Representation.
For educational purposes, let us
pretend that the national Republican Party won 10 delegate seats at the
Constitutional Convention, the Democratic Party-10, the Libertarian
Party-9, the Green Party-8, the Constitution Party-7, the Socialist
Party-3, the Communist Party-2, and an Anarchist group-1 (Anarchists
generally believe that government, in any form, is detrimental to
society.)
The 50 Constitutional Convention
delegates will meet the first Tuesday of November one year after the
previous presidential election. The delegates at the Constitutional
Convention will choose within 30 days one of their own attending
delegates to be the chairperson, based on a system of Instant Run-off
voting.
To pick a Constitutional Convention
chairperson, each delegate will rank 7 candidates in order of
preference. If no chairperson candidate gets a 51% majority, then the 7
th of the top 7 candidates is dropped from the voting list before the 2
nd round of voting is held among the top 6 candidates. If after the 2 nd
round of voting, there is still no chairperson candidate with a 51%
majority, then a 3 rd round of voting among the top 5 candidates will
take place. This manner of voting will continue even if it is narrowed
down to a choice between two or three chairperson candidates. The
chairperson will be responsible for facilitating the proceedings of the
Constitutional Convention.
Formal discussions and debates of the
Convention will use parliamentary procedure. The Convention delegates
will work on several revisions, if necessary, of the newly proposed
Constitution, in the constant effort to get 51% of the American people
to accept it, as expressed in public opinion surveys. In fact, since the
delegates have a maximum of one year, they could work longer to get a
higher percentage of approval than 51%, after hearing arguments from
those who disapprove of the new document. Two years after the previous
presidential election, the American people will vote on the latest,
proposed constitution approved by at least 51% of the Constitutional
Convention delegates.
Without a 51% majority vote of approval
by the American people as well, as expressed through voting, the
proposed constitution will be null and void, and the current
Constitution will continue as before. If the proposed Constitution is
ratified by the American people, it will not be implemented until two
years later, unless 51% of the state legislatures want to implement it
sooner.
In summary, once the American voters
decide they want a Constitutional Convention, they will have one year to
pick national political party delegates, and it will take another year
for the actual Constitutional Convention. Then two years later the
Constitution will be implemented at the beginning of the next
presidential term of office. This allows two years to prepare the
infrastructure of the new government based on the new Constitution. The
spoken and written words of the delegates must be publicized, and
citizens will be allowed to voice their own opinions in the process.
The US Congress, the President, and the
US Supreme Court will not have the right to control an Amendment
Convention or a Constitutional Convention. They can, however, express
their opinions and recommendations in the process. [End of amendment
proposal]
Friends of the Article V Convention ( www.FOAVC.org
) have documented that the U.S. Congress is obligated right now to call
an Article V (Amendment) Convention so that representatives of the 50
state legislatures can vote only to ratify various constitutional
amendments that have already been proposed. Members of this group argue
that Article V of our current Constitution addresses how to have an
Amendment Convention but not a Constitutional Convention. Some of them
may not fully endorse my Twenty-Eighth Amendment proposal. But they make
a very strong case that we should be having an Amendment Convention
right now.
Bill Walker at www.FOAVC.org has
collected photographed copies of 750 applications for an Article V
Convention that have been submitted to Congress from 49 states. The
current Constitution mandates that an amendment-proposing national
convention (consisting of one delegate from each state) be called when
2/3 of the state legislatures (i.e., 34 states) propose it. The Supreme
Court has declared over the years in 5 separate decisions (without
dissent) that Congress must call an Article V Convention. But Congress
has never obeyed the Constitution regarding an Article V Convention. Nor
has Congress compiled the applications into a single public record.
Aided by opponents of an Article V
Convention and a complacent Judiciary, Congress has kept the
applications buried in Congressional records and has thus deliberately
and willfully vetoed the Constitution. Every member of Congress should
now be held accountable for this violation. In an earlier essay posted
at the website Disinformation
( www.disinfo.com/2010/congress-refuses-an-article-V-Convention ), I elaborate on this issue. The website www.FOAVC.org is where I got information about an Article V Convention.
Some members of the Occupy Wall Street ,
New York , are offering a Restore Democracy Plan which focuses on just
one issue that could get universal support from all Americans (even
those in the Tea Party) by pushing an amendment proposal that gets big
money out of politics. Organizations such as corporations and unions
should not be considered people, and money shall not be considered
speech. See the article by Rick Theis at www.EcoHearth.com/eco-op-ed/1716-occupy-wall-street-restore-democracy-plan.html
But one person made a comment about
Rick Theis' article about the Restore Democracy Plan strategy: “Asking
Congress to amend asks them to undo what they put the Supremes up to
[in] the Citizens United decision. They have wanted the $ for years.
Thinking they are going to give it up short of an Article V Convention
is naïve.”
But then Rick Theis responded, “Chris,
thanks for your comment, but it seems you skimmed rather than read this
op-ed piece. It sets forth a clear plan for getting Congress to agree to
the amendment using the same tactics Prohibition Amendment supporters
used…and we have public support for overturning corporate personhood at
far greater levels (80% of the Democrats, 81% of Independents, and 76%
of Republicans, as the piece states) than Prohibition supporters did.
[The] [P]roof that Congress can and will act against its own selfish
interests is all of the campaign finance reform that passed (especially
as the result of the public pressure after Watergate), reform that would
have helped had it not been overturned by the courts. An Article V
Convention is a horrible idea for many, many reasons, not the least of
which is that it could easily be hijacked by right-wing demagogues.”
In conclusion, I support any amendment
that can overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling. The
Citizens United ruling, passed in 2010, allows corporations to unduly
influence elections with their exorbitant Super Pac donations. We are
now seeing the consequences of the Citizens United ruling with the
Republican presidential candidates. We now have a government of, by, and
for the corporations.
Furthermore, if Congress has been
mandated by the Supreme Court to allow the state legislatures to have a
national Amendment Convention, then obeying the law and the Constitution
is what Congress should do. We the people should also demand it, even
if we fear a right-wing agenda, which may not be justified.
But I believe my Twenty-Eighth
Amendment proposal is far more comprehensive in establishing a
government that expresses the will of all citizens, from the far right
to the far left, with its introduction of Proportional Representation
and Instant Run-off voting methods. At my website www.NowSavetheWorld.com (you must type the 3 w's to go there), I propose in my online book Converting Voting Precincts into Tribes my Third Constitution of the United States (It is also posted at the website Disinformation: www.disinfo.com/2012/02/the-third-constitution-of-the-united-states/ ).
The Third Constitution of the United States builds government from the
bottom-up using consensus decision making at every level of government.
It also eliminates the US Senate with its advocacy of Proportional
Representation.
A new Constitution of the United States
that results from an actual Constitutional Convention may not be very
far reaching to my Green Party preferences. But I can keep working
through the democratic process to make things better. Others, who have
radically different ideas from mine, have a right to do the same.
Roger
Copple retired in May 2010 from teaching third grade in a public school
in Indianapolis, at the age of 60. Interested in political theory, he
has tried to integrate the best of Libertarian, Green, Socialist, and
Anarchist viewpoints.
