Post your Consitutional Amendment ideas here

[Edu]

Could we have another branch of government that checks all proposed bills, like the supreme court, but before they are voted on?

 

[Revolutn]

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

And I'm sorry that you didn't see the value of the multiple responses to your authoritarian proposal.

I saw your ads you ran, they were awesome, and you really hit the major points of Ron Paul's liberty positions very well, so surely you can not tell me you do not comprehend the level of hypocrisy you are promoting in the idea of limiting the RIGHT of voting to a mere privilege of a select few?

 

[Banana]

I like the amendment that was proposed that said that for every bill proposed, congress must state which clause in the Constitution gives them the power to pass it.

The intention is great, but the problem is that they'd just find a bunch of clauses and refer to it again and again and again, which would just add to the paperwork but not really guaranteeing constitutional-ness of the bill.

In the same way that we have spearation of Church and State, we need Spearation of Corporations and State.

Oooo, that's good one. Ironic too as there is no actual clause "Separation of Church and State", but I definitely do think we do need a separation of state and corporation. That would solve so many problem of corporates and lobbyists' unholy alliance.

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

Remember that Founding Fathers believed people were endowed with inalienable rights, and pretty sure that would include vote.

Besides, I think delegates makes helluva lot of sense. A bunch of people come together and they know they're not that hot on political issues but can trust Mr. X to represent them to do his homework in electing the best official and adopting platform. This is farther more democratic than arbitrarily excluding a group of people because they couldn't meet the criteria (and who will make sure the criteria won't be unduly rigged?)

Could we have another branch of government that checks all proposed bills, like the supreme court, but before they are voted on?

It's usually the job of legislative staff to do that. The real problem is we don't have honest politicians there who doesn't think that Constitution is more than just a goddamn piece of paper.

 

[lucynuts]

First amendment for me would be to send Frank Luntz and a bunch of other neo-cons to small island and watch them play survivor island for real.

 

[HollyforRP]

I like all of the ideas!

Especially with the voting system.

1. Voting:

-There should be harsh penalties for any form of interference for those who want to vote including Candidates conspiring and spreading mis-information by phone, email, snail mail, media outlets.

*Media should not feel threatened by higher powers. This takes away from freedom of the press. Media will be required to give equal coverage during the debate. If someone is blackmailing or bribing media and there are candidates blacked out, it will be investigated for conspiring to tamper with the election.

*No more electronic voting machines.

*Showing an ID will be mandatory. You must be an American citizen to vote.

*Non violent voter watch groups will be encouraged to ensure poll workers are not giving misinformation. Voter watch groups will be allowed to video tape without security guards threatening them. Non-biased watchers will be appointed to make sure there is no voter tamperment.

*Any officials caught pushing buttons to sway the election will be held responsible and punished.

*There will be no voter disenfranchisement allowed period.

-------------

2. Freedom from the press

*In times where public figures and private citizens are hounded by the press unwanted, it will be viewed of as stalking.

The press has not only helped give publicity but also helped destroy lives and create an illusion that public figures deserve to be stalked because of how much money they make and because the press made them a star.

*Any media outlet that has captured photos of a celebrity on the spot without a formal agreement to an interview will have to pay royalty fees to the celebrity for profiting off of someone's image.


*Private citizens and celebrities are protected by harrassment of the press that overstep the boundaries of privacy laws.

*This does not apply to court cases and actual upcoming news, mutal agreement to interviews.

*Media will not be allowed to incriminate citizens turning the individual into guilty before proven innocent case. Grilling of a citizen over an upcoming court case or playing the role of a prosecutor for all to see is a case of character assasination.

(This idea came to me after Melinda Duckett who ended her life one day after Nancy Grace grilled her over her missing son painting Melinda Duckett as a murderer. Nancy Grace also showed a preference for Melinda's ex-husband Josh Duckett who had some crooked cops in his family.)

This is a disgrace to journalism.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2448050


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3. Anti-police brutality act

* Police officers are not supposed to be militant. Their duty is to protect and serve the people. Instead, now they view every single person as a potential criminal.

*Officers will not just get a slap on the wrist for brutality. Depending on the case, minimum will be a fine; abusing any citizens using any weapon, objects to use as weapons on citizens or beating someone will be a fine plus losing job; Murder will be investigated fully. The officer will have to sit in jail. If jury finds the officer guilty, the officer will get the same amount of time a citizen would.

*Psychological torture on non-violent criminals is not allowed.

*Anyone in the police caught covering up crimes will be charged with covering up the crime. Backing up a crooked police officer(s) and covering up a police officer's crime will result in job loss immediately if on a low scale. If on high scale cover up, possible prison sentence and loss of job immediately.

 

[forsmant]

No One wants an amendment for balanced budgets?

 

[AJ Antimony]

28. The use of electronics or any other form of advanced technology is hereby strictly forbidden in the process of any election.

29. All votes for the election of any federal position must be recounted.

30. Attaching items to bills in Congress is hereby forbidden. Each bill will address one piece of legislation and one piece only.

31. Any notion of pre-emptive war is strictly forbidden.

32. Expansion of the Judicial branch. When Americans lose faith in the Supreme Court, they may hold Judicial Conventions in which when 3/4 of these said legislatures agree, may remove Justices from the Supreme Court on the notion that they are not defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States.

33. All mentioned Conventions in this Constitution shall be defined by the following: That each convention consists of at least 50 individuals, that the Presiding officer of each convention be the Governor of the state, and that the state decides the selection criteria or process of choosing the 50 delegates.

34. Presidential candidates may no longer raise funds from the public or spend money on anything other than traveling.

35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

36. 22nd Amendment repealed. An individual can serve two terms as President of the United States without question. To qualify for an additional term, the incumbent President must have an average approval rating of 85% in the final three years of his current term. If a President is this successful in his terms in office, in theory he will have no term limit. The approval rating will be determined by a Division I University with the Universities rotating with each administration. Only an incumbent President may qualify for a third or more term.

 

[nakor667]

Repeal of the 16th amendment. Government never should have been given the power to tax the income of individuals. It punishes productivity, aggravates millions, and is completely unnecessary to finance federal government.

Rights of non-citizens. Are illegal aliens granted constitutional rights? Prisoners in Gitmo? Astronauts in space? Ambiguity on whom the constitution applies (and where) really need to be defined, and the ability for government suspend rights guaranteed by the constitution nullified.

Abortion. Currently the federal government has no authority over abortion, either to make it legally available for women or to prohibit it. Despite what the courts say, there is nothing in the constitution that addresses this. If there is going to be a federal policy, lets amend the constitution to establish it as a right or make it illegal; otherwise the federal government should stay the heck out of it.

Secession. This issue is so huge, I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed before. Heck, we fought a civil war over this! The constitution sets out criteria for joining the United States; it makes no mention of leaving the union. This really needs to be addressed: people should be free to have the choice to leave the union without violence, preferably by popular vote of the state (Hawaii would be the first to go). Also covered should be the splitting up of states (like Texas or California), merging (Dakotas), and eviction or kicking out of a state by the rest of the country (which may happen to California eventually).

Highest law of the land. This one shouldn't be necessary, but there should be an amendment that says the US Constitution is the highest law of the land, above organizations like the UN, NATO, NAFTA, the proposed North American Union, and any other international organization. Also there should be *no* circumstances under which the constitution should be suspended, be it martial law or what have you.

 

[Edu]

No One wants an amendment for balanced budgets?

See post #4 (I don't like the war part because they would run continuous wars)

 

[homah]

I'm Sorry you guys feel this way, but it would be the easiest way to eliminate the electoral college, delegate counts. Have people who are educated, and yes College educated take there tests, and know alot about the world, I guess you could as well take a constitutional test to be eligable to vote as well., not people who just go to a DMV and sign up to vote.

so bill gates can't vote, but someone who graduated community college with a 2.0 can?

for most people, a college diploma is simply a piece of information they can put on their resume. it isn't necessarily indicative of intelligence.

 

[silverhandorder]

1. Constitution is not open to interpretation. Anything not given in constitution is a state right.

2. Government can not hold any secret from it's citizens. Military technology and plans may remain undisclosed. Anything that does not significantly expose the nation to imminent danger must be disclosed. Public can have access to any document in the federal government.

3. No notion of socialism is acceptable. Only voluntarily funded programs allowed.

 

[HollyforRP]

28. The use of electronics or any other form of advanced technology is hereby strictly forbidden in the process of any election.

29. All votes for the election of any federal position must be recounted.

30. Attaching items to bills in Congress is hereby forbidden. Each bill will address one piece of legislation and one piece only.

31. Any notion of pre-emptive war is strictly forbidden.

32. Expansion of the Judicial branch. When Americans lose faith in the Supreme Court, they may hold Judicial Conventions in which when 3/4 of these said legislatures agree, may remove Justices from the Supreme Court on the notion that they are not defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States.

33. All mentioned Conventions in this Constitution shall be defined by the following: That each convention consists of at least 50 individuals, that the Presiding officer of each convention be the Governor of the state, and that the state decides the selection criteria or process of choosing the 50 delegates.

34. Presidential candidates may no longer raise funds from the public or spend money on anything other than traveling.

35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

36. 22nd Amendment repealed. An individual can serve two terms as President of the United States without question. To qualify for an additional term, the incumbent President must have an average approval rating of 85% in the final three years of his current term. If a President is this successful in his terms in office, in theory he will have no term limit. The approval rating will be determined by a Division I University with the Universities rotating with each administration. Only an incumbent President may qualify for a third or more term.

Especially agree with the bolded!

 

[Banana]

I like all of the ideas!

Especially with the voting system.

1. Voting:

-There should be harsh penalties for any form of interference for those who want to vote including Candidates conspiring and spreading mis-information by phone, email, snail mail, media outlets.

+1

*Media should not feel threatened by higher powers. This takes away from freedom of the press. Media will be required to give equal coverage during the debate. If someone is blackmailing or bribing media and there are candidates blacked out, it will be investigated for conspiring to tamper with the election.

+1 for blackmailing/bribing/tampering. Not sure if we really should legislate media, though...

*No more electronic voting machines.

*Showing an ID will be mandatory. You must be an American citizen to vote.

*Non violent voter watch groups will be encouraged to ensure poll workers are not giving misinformation. Voter watch groups will be allowed to video tape without security guards threatening them. Non-biased watchers will be appointed to make sure there is no voter tamperment.

*Any officials caught pushing buttons to sway the election will be held responsible and punished.

*There will be no voter disenfranchisement allowed period.

+1

2. Freedom from the press

*In times where public figures and private citizens are hounded by the press unwanted, it will be viewed of as stalking.

The press has not only helped give publicity but also helped destroy lives and create an illusion that public figures deserve to be stalked because of how much money they make and because the press made them a star.

That's too much legislating, IMO. I would rather push for a stronger libel law (see British's stance on libel and media. I think they struck a perfect balance over there)

*Any media outlet that has captured photos of a celebrity on the spot without a formal agreement to an interview will have to pay royalty fees to the celebrity for profiting off of someone's image.

Who will qualify as celebrity. I really don't want to force media to pay royalty to the likes of K-Fed and Brit. Do you?

*Private citizens and celebrities are protected by harrassment of the press that overstep the boundaries of privacy laws.

*This does not apply to court cases and actual upcoming news, mutal agreement to interviews.

*Media will not be allowed to incriminate citizens turning the individual into guilty before proven innocent case. Grilling of a citizen over an upcoming court case or playing the role of a prosecutor for all to see is a case of character assasination.

(This idea came to me after Melinda Duckett who ended her life one day after Nancy Grace grilled her over her missing son painting Melinda Duckett as a murderer. Nancy Grace also showed a preference for Melinda's ex-husband Josh Duckett who had some crooked cops in his family.)

See above RE: libel.

This is a disgrace to journalism.

I so totally agree that media is in a bad shape. However, I'm not 100% sure whether this is proper consitutional amendment or best left up to state to legislate. I think I would lean toward latter so we can experiment what legislation will work best in regulating media.

3. Anti-police brutality act

I believe this is best legislated by states, IMO.

No One wants an amendment for balanced budgets?

Damn.

28. The use of electronics or any other form of advanced technology is hereby strictly forbidden in the process of any election.

29. All votes for the election of any federal position must be recounted.

+1

30. Attaching items to bills in Congress is hereby forbidden. Each bill will address one piece of legislation and one piece only.

+10

31. Any notion of pre-emptive war is strictly forbidden.

That's a policy, and will cause more problem if made a law, IMO.

32. Expansion of the Judicial branch. When Americans lose faith in the Supreme Court, they may hold Judicial Conventions in which when 3/4 of these said legislatures agree, may remove Justices from the Supreme Court on the notion that they are not defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States.

Congress already hold the powers to impeach justices, IIRC.

33. All mentioned Conventions in this Constitution shall be defined by the following: That each convention consists of at least 50 individuals, that the Presiding officer of each convention be the Governor of the state, and that the state decides the selection criteria or process of choosing the 50 delegates.

34. Presidential candidates may no longer raise funds from the public or spend money on anything other than traveling.

?

35. With historical proof of inefficiency, any sort of National Bank is hereby forbidden.

+1

36. 22nd Amendment repealed. An individual can serve two terms as President of the United States without question. To qualify for an additional term, the incumbent President must have an average approval rating of 85% in the final three years of his current term. If a President is this successful in his terms in office, in theory he will have no term limit. The approval rating will be determined by a Division I University with the Universities rotating with each administration. Only an incumbent President may qualify for a third or more term.

I disagree.

As I explained in other place, POTUS and all Congress positions are *NOT* leaders, head-of-state, lawmakers, king, whatever. They are properly public servants, bound to the will of people. By imposing term limits, we ensure that we don't get stuck up in cult of personality where we just need one rotten but charismatic individual to pervert our institutions.

 

[Danny]

How about the Liberty Amendment, which was introduced in the House by Ron Paul back in '03 and has already been endorsed by several states:

http://libertyamendment.org/

This is right up our alley:

The purpose of this Amendment is to give full force and effect to the Constitution of the United States; to restore freedom and lost liberties to all Americans; and to restore sovereignty to the United States of America, the States and the body of the People.

The Liberty Amendment will renew personal freedom – the ability of individuals to exercise their God-given rights with a minimum of dependence on, and interference from, the Federal Government. It will restore to ourselves and to future generations the advantages which we inherited from our forefathers – advantages which made us the most fortunate people on earth.

Economic freedom, without which no freedom is possible, will be renewed by terminating federal competition with free enterprise and interference in "our" economy. When this has been accomplished, federal personal income, estate, and gift taxes will be unnecessary. So this Amendment will further renew economic freedom by terminating these taxes.

The Liberty Amendment is designed to regain the Constitutionally guaranteed powers reserved to the States and to the people. We are requesting that all States consider the urgent need to save the sovereignty of the States, the United States in its true Constitutionally framed Republic, and the Individual Liberty of all of our People.

 

[american.swan]

My suggestion would be...
All citizens are solely citizens of states and as such the federal government has no right to govern, tax, or arrest state citizens. (maybe needs some modification)

 

[Fields]

1. All voting must have verifible paper trail.
2. Remove anchor-baby clause from 14th amendment.
3. Repeal the 17th amendment so that Senators are appointed by State legislatures.

+1

 

[sratiug]

Make lying illegal for anyone in government, especially police and prosecutors.

Make it illegal for a judge to instruct jurors on the law.

Repeal 16th and 17th amendments,

Re-repeal the 18th along with the original repealing amendment that allows regulation of alcohol by adding language forbidding the regulation of any food, drink, plant, inhalant, drug, or medical advice or treatments.

 

[voytechs]

We should amend the constitution to provide mandatory life sentences to any politician breaking the constitution. It should be treated as highest treason against the people of this country. We'd be 68 senators less including McCain after yesterday's vote for torture.

 

[american.swan]

Really most of these ideas can be chalked up to the founding father's not understanding the laziness of the people and how they aren't interested in this sort of thing and people lie.

The system the founding father's set up doesn't work when the citizens are lazy and a group of rich bastards have plans to take over the government.

The south should have won the war. The USA today is too big for it's own good.

 

[-lotus-]

Government shall not classify citizens, either by race, creed, class, denomination, physical attribute, or by any other qualification or singularity. All legal citizens of these United States are now and forevermore free individuals, sovereign entities protected from harm foreign and domestic by their appointed government but especially from their appointed government.