Draft Amendments to U.S. Constitution
This is a collection of draft amendments to the Constitution for
the United States. These should be regarded as short position
statements on constitutional construction. It is subject to
frequent additions and revisions, so readers may want to revisit
often.
There are three groups of amendments: Clarifying, Remedial,
and Substantive. The Clarifying are intended only to
return legal practice to original understanding. The Remedial are
intended to correct errors and omissions. The Substantive are
intended to add some additional powers that many people might
think the national government should be authorized to exercise.
They are intended as much as anything to highlight that the
national government presently does not have such powers.
It is not proposed that state legislatures petition Congress to
call a constitutional convention, but rather that they propose
identical amendments to Congress to be adopted as proposed
amendments and sent back to the states for ratification. The task
for reformers would be to unite behind identical versions and not
accept variations. However, the main focus is not, for the
clarifying amendments, on actually getting them ratified, but on
using them to drive reform in legal practice.
Such proposed amendments provide a way to allocate our efforts
and measure our progress. Using them, we can determine which
officials can be redeemed and which must be replaced, at both the
state and federal levels. We can also determine what we have to do
to get enough public support, by measuring how much support each
has among which groups of people. It may happen that with enough
support by enough people in the right places, the amendments will
not have to actually be adopted, but we may also be able to
determine which need to actually be adopted to prevent
backsliding. During the course of debate we can also discover
weaknesses in the language of the amendments requiring further
clarification, to avoid future misinterpretation.
We will be adding pages with links and white papers explaining
and discussing each amendment, linked from the title.
Some may prefer not to advance these statements as amendments,
but as positions to be demanded of decisionmakers and fellow
citizens. Preambles for each purpose will be provided for each by
clicking on its title. Just prepend the preferred preamble to the
text of the amendment before asserting it.
Strategy.
Discussion of the way these amendments and the reforms they
represent might be advanced.
Model U.S.
Constitution. How we might write it with the
advantage of hindsight.
Immunitates.
Clean, more complete list of constitutional rights.
Clarifying amendments โ These do
not make substantive changes in what was originally understood:
- Clarification of "right"
- In this Constitution all rights are immunities against the
action of government officials, not entitlements to receive some
service or benefit. Every immunity is a restriction on delegated
powers, and every delegated power is a restriction on
immunities. Delegated powers and immunities partition the space
of public action. The exercise of a right is not subject to
regulation, except to allocate use of a scarce resource, or to
taxation, and only to insignificant incidental burdens by
government actions at any level, unless there is an explicit
exception to the contrary, in this Constitution.
- Prerogative writs
- All persons have the right to a presumption of nonauthority.
Any person may file, without prior consent of any court, as
demandant, in the name of the people, in a court of competent
jurisdiction, a writ of quo warranto, habeas
corpus, prohibito, mandamus, procedendo,
certiorari, scire facias, or other
prerogative writ, including a demurral, and upon service of
notice to respondent, respondent shall have three days, and not
more than 20 days with cause, to prove his authority to do or
not do what the writ demands. The writ filed shall be the
summons, with no further action needed by the court, which shall
not treat the writ as a petition or motion for injunctive
relief. The burden of proof shall rest solely on the respondent.
The court shall hold a hearing within five days of receipt of
the response from the respondent, and ahead of any other
business before the court except another prerogative writ.
Either demandant or respondent shall have the right to trial by
a jury of at least twelve, with twelve required to sustain the
claim of authority of the respondent. On a writ of habeas
corpus the respondent must produce the individual held
regardless of the legal or factual issues, and failure to do so,
unless the medical condition of the subject requires otherwise,
shall result in immediate release. The order granting the relief
demanded shall issue by default if a hearing is not held or a
decision not made. Only the Supreme Court of the United States
shall have jurisdiction to decide a writ of quo warranto,
upon impeachment, to remove from office for perjury of oath,
fraud, or ineligibility, or restrict the exercise of power, of
the President or Vice-president, a member of Congress, or a
judge of the United States, but any United States court of
general jurisdiction shall have jurisdiction for lesser
officials, subject to appeal to higher courts, and the President
and Vice President shall have the right to a verdict by a jury
composed of two adult citizens selected at random from each
state.
- Clarification of "regulate"
- The power to regulate shall consist only of the power to
restrict the attributes or modalities of the object regulated,
and not to prohibit all attributes or modalities, or impose
criminal penalties.
- Clarification of "commerce"
- Commerce shall consist only of transfers of equitable interest
and possession of tangible commodities, for a valuable
consideration, from a seller or lessor to a purchaser or lessee.
It shall not include transport without such transfer or
interest, nor extraction, primary production, manufacturing,
possession, use, or disposal, nor shall it include the other
activities of those engaged in such transfers. It shall not
include energy, information, or financial or contractual
instruments. Commerce among the states shall not include sales
or leases within a state.
- Clarification of Article I Section 8 Clause 18
- Article I Section 8 Clause 18 of this Constitution shall be
construed to include only enablement of the completion of duties
by duly elected or appointed officials, to make a limited,
reasonable effort strictly necessary to exercise an express
power narrowly construed, and not to go beyond completion of the
duty or to do whatever might be deemed convenient to get an
outcome or result for which the effort might be made.
- Rules of construction
- Section 1. The judicial decisions in every court of the United
States and of every state shall be made under the common law
terms and rules of due process and construction in effect in the
United States as of 1787 that do not conflict with this
Constitution or statutes enacted within its authority.
- Section 2. If there is any significant doubt concerning
whether an official has a power, or a person has an immunity
from the exercise of a power, the presumption shall be that the
official does not have the power, or conversely, that the person
has the immunity.
- Section 3. On all constitutional issues precedents may only be
regarded as persuasive and never binding, and binding stare
decisis shall not be used as a rule of construction.
- Section 4. Constitutional text shall be construed only on
historical evidence of the meaning and understanding of the
terms for, first, their ratifiers, and second, their framers.
- Section 5. Equity and prudential decisions shall not be
regarded as precedents.
- Section 6. The powers to tax, spend, promote, regulate, and
prohibit (or punish), shall each be construed as distinct, with
none derivable from any of the others, and none shall be
exercised as a way to avoid the lack of a power to do one of the
others.
- Section 7. No power applicable to an object, or any necessary
and proper power derived from it, shall be extended to other
objects with which it may be aggregated or causally connected,
except to separate the applicable objects from the others.
- Standing
- No person shall be denied standing to privately prosecute a
public right for at least declaratory or injunctive relief, even
if he or she has not incurred, or does not expect, personal
injury resulting from the failure to grant such relief.
- Fully informed jury
- In all trials in which there are mixed questions of law and
fact, including all criminal jury trials, and all jury trials in
which government officials or agents, whether general, state, or
local, shall be a party, parties shall have the right not to
have decisions by the bench on questions of law made before all
arguments can be made before the jury, excepting only arguments
on defense motions in limine that cannot be made without
disclosing evidence properly excluded. Jurors shall receive
copies of all applicable constitutions, statutes, court
precedents, and legal arguments, including those of intervenors
and amici curiae, and access to an adequate law library
in which they can do research.
- Access to grand jury, appointment of prosecutors
- No person shall be unreasonably impeded from access to a
randomly selected grand jury of 23, who, if they should return
an indictment or presentment, may appoint that person or any
other to prosecute the case, and shall decide which court, if
any, has jurisdiction, and whether any person shall have
official immunity from suit.
- Clarification of "militia"
- The primary meaning of "militia" shall be "defense activity",
and only secondarily those engaged in it, or obligated to engage
in it. All citizens and would-be citizens have the legal duty to
defend the constitutions of the United States and their state,
and the members of society, from any threat to their rights,
privileges, or immunities, in response to a call-up by any
person aware of a credible threat. Any call-up that does not
require everyone to respond shall select those required by
sortition. Jury duty shall be regarded as a form of militia
duty. Militia may not be kept in a called up status beyond the
duration of an emergency. Congress and state legislatures shall
have the power to enforce this duty by appropriate legislation.
- Readiness of "militia"
- Militia shall be maintained in a state of readiness sufficient
to overcome any regular military force it might encounter. Those
who may engage in militia shall have any weapons in common use
by regular military, subject only to the directives of local
elected unit commanders during operations while called up. If
Congress or any state or local legislative body shall fail to
provide for organizing, training, or equipping militia units,
persons shall not be impeded from organizing, training, and
equipping themselves independently.
- Clarification of "bill of attainder"
- A bill of attainder shall consist of any legislative
disablement of an immunity, either for an individual, group, or
the people in general, without proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
decided by a jury in each individual case, that he or she has
committed a crime or is dangerously incompetent.
- Clarification of "title of nobility"
- A title of nobility shall consist of any legislated or
judicially conferred privilege or immunity, not enjoyed by all,
or to the detriment of others, that is not essential for the
performance of legitimate official duties, and a grand jury may
authorize civil or criminal prosecution of an official for
exceeding his jurisdiction or abusing his discretion.
- Clarification of "declaration of war"
- A declaration of war shall specify the state or organized body
that is the enemy, the casus belli or casus foederis
requiring its issuance, the commencement date, and the terms for
its conclusion. The identification of the enemy shall be
sufficiently explicit to allow persons of common understanding
to recognize them, and not be left to executive officials
to#8212 define the boundaries of who is included.
- Clarification of "piracy"
- "Piracy" shall consist only of warlike acts committed by a
nonstate actor against persons or property of a country foreign
to him. Letters of marque and reprisal make the person to whom
they are issued a state actor, and under a declaration of war
all citizens are to be regarded as state actors with respect to
the foreign state defined in the declaration.
- Clarification of "trial by jury"
- Trial by jury in criminal cases is not a right that may be
waived by the defendant. It is a mandate even if the defendant
pleads guilty. The number of jurors in all cases must be twelve.
They must be randomly selected from the general body of
citizens. They may not be asked about their knowledge,
experience, or opinions about the law in voir dire. They
must be unanimous to convict but not to acquit, and failure to
convict shall be deemed acquittal, unless there is a mistrial.
There shall be no more than three re-trials of the same case
when mistrials occur. This provision applies to all civil or
criminal cases, national, state, or local.
- Powers in nonstate territories
- Congress shall not have power within nonstate territory in
excess of powers provided by the constitutions of at least
three-fourths of the states, being those that delegate the least
power to their governments on the same subjects.
- Disablement of rights
- Congress shall not have power to disable a right or penalize
any person on the basis of an administrative or due process
proceeding in another jurisdiction, or lack thereof, or an
administrative or due process proceeding in the same
jurisdiction that does not explicitly disable the right as part
of the final order of the court, upon conviction by a jury for a
crime or a unanimous jury verdict finding dangerous
incompetence.
- Clarification of "speech" and "press"
- "Speech" and "press" shall include the production and
distribution of any communication, private or commercial, other
than inducement to immediately commit a crime or act of war, or
to give aid and comfort to a declared enemy.
- Clarification of general welfare
- The term "general" in "general welfare" in Article I Section 8
means "not special", and it is not a delegation of power but a
restriction on the power to tax and spend, meaning that
government shall exercise no power in ways designed or intended
to burden or benefit one part of the population over another,
except in minor ways incidental to the proper exercise of
delegated powers.
- Clarification of "exceptions" to appellate jurisdiction
- The exceptions to appellate jurisdiction of Article III
Section 2 Clause 2 only mean original jurisdiction, not no
jurisdiction. There must always be some court somewhere open to
hear and justly decide any judicial question, original or
appellate.
- Clarification of "cases" and "controversies"
- The terms "cases" and "controversies" used in Article III
Section 2 shall not be limited to parties with a direct stake in
the decision, but shall include any case for which the court can
grant relief, including declaratory and injunctive relief,
private prosecutions of public rights, trustees representing
their trusts, and prerogative writs.
- Clarification of treaty power
- Government shall exercise no power within the territory of the
United States, based on a treaty, not otherwise delegated to it
by this Constitution, other than powers to administer trust
territories or protectorates.
- Clarification of pardon power
- A person may be pardoned only after conviction, and the pardon
does not nullify the conviction. It is only a declaration that
the executive will not enforce it. A declaration by a president
or state governor that he will not enforce a criminal conviction
against a person, does not bar enforcement by another person to
whom a warrant to do so may be issued by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
- Clarification of sovereign immunity
- Sovereign immunity of a state or the nation shall not be a bar
to suit, only to execution of judgment against assets not
provided by an act of Congress or the state legislature for
payment of claims.
- Direct and indirect tax
-
- A tax shall be considered direct if under the totality of
circumstances in which it is applied, less than half of it
is likely to be passed through to a further individual
purchaser of the thing taxed as a higher cost of purchase,
and indirect if half or more of it is likely to be thus
passed through.
- An indirect tax may only be imposed on a profitable
transaction or use the profit on which is or is readily
convertible into a monetary equivalent.
- A direct tax may not be imposed on being or having
something without a profitable transaction involved.
- No tax shall
- unduly burden the exercise of a natural or social
right, or
- be imposed on not doing something, or
- offer a deduction for doing something there is no
power to compel one to do, or
- be to regulate something not otherwise subject to a
power to regulate, or
- be at a rate beyond the point of diminishing return of
revenue.
- When in doubt, a tax shall be considered direct.
- Taxes on corporate entities or trusts shall be considered
indirect.
- Location of jurisdiction for crime
- A crime, whether under the laws of the United States or a
State, shall be considered to have been committed at the point
in space and time where mens rea and actus reus
concur, not where the harm is caused. Territorial jurisdiction
for treason, piracy, and offenses against the law of nations is
not confined to the territory of the United States, but personal
jurisdiction for treason is confined to United States citizens.
- Limited application of regulation
- No regulation, ordinance, or other rule issued as anything but
an act of Congress shall have the force of law on the general
public, but may be applied only to government agents.
- Trust Law
- The law of trusts as of the date of ratification of this
Constitution is hereby recognized as part of the common law that
preceded this Constitution and was incorporated into it. The
settlor, trustee, beneficiary, and the trust itself shall each
be deemed as distinct persons in any court of law of the United
States and any State, the trust represented therein by the
trustee.
- Power to raise army
- The power to raise an army, navy, or other military force,
other than militia, is only to hire volunteers, not to conscript
the unwilling.
- Power to investigate
- Congress has power to authorize itself or committees of itself
to operate as a grand jury for the investigation of public
matters, including the issuance of subpoenas, and to authorize
courts to enforce its subpoenas and orders to provide
information.
- Privilege from arrest
- Members of Congress shall not be exempt from noncustodial
arrest for a crime while Congress is in session, but may not be
detained in a way that prevents them from debate or voting on a
bill.
- Clarification of appropriation
- No expenditure shall be made, or obligation incurred or
committed, by or for the government or any activity under its
supervision, except within appropriations enacted by Congress,
which shall specify the amount and the department or activity it
may support, and which shall not exceed six years.
- Clarification of Article I Section 7
- The word "bills" shall include proposals within bills, and any
proposal for raising or receiving revenues or disbursing funds,
including for borrowing or lending, shall originate in the House
of Representatives, and shall specify rates, amounts, objects,
and purposes.
- Clarification of "Citizen" in Article III, Section 2,
Clause 1
- In Article III, Section 2, Clause 1, the word "citizen" shall
be deemed to include persons resident in the state, even if not
a citizen of the United States.
- Clarification of "exceptions" and "regulations" in Article
III, Section 2, Clause 2
- In Article III, Section 2, Clause 2, the words "exceptions"
and "regulations" shall only allow assignment of original
jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, and not removal of
jurisdiction from all courts. There must always be at least one
court somewhere that can decide any judicial question.
- Constitutional allegiance
- All United States citizens and nationals, and all non-citizens
while they are on the national soil of the United States, except
for duly certified foreign diplomats, are subject to this
Constitution and constitutional laws, and shall be deemed as
having taken a oath or affirmation to "Preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States against all
enemies, foreign or domestic".
- No plenary powers
- All powers delegated in this Constitution are constrained to
be exercised only for a proper, or reasonable, rational, and
legitimate, public purpose, as a fiduciary trust for the general
benefit of all the people and not for the special benefit of any
part of them, partially but not completely stated in the
Preamble. No power is plenary or without limits, and no power
may be extended to accomplish a purpose without amendment.
- Proper taxable objects
- Taxable objects of Congress and each state or subdivision
thereof shall include only profitable activities that are not
exercises of preconstitutional rights, and shall not include
gifts, bequests, equal exchanges, possession, existence, or
inaction.
- Constitutionalism may be established
- Devotion to the Constitution as originally meant and
understood may be an established religion in the United States
and in each State.
Remedial amendments โ These
correct omissions or mistakes:
- Contumacy
- Congress shall have power to prescribe the penalty for
contumacy, but no judge shall have power to punish by fine,
imprisonment, or other penalty, other than by incarceration for
a period not to exceed ten days per court session, without
conviction by a jury in a trial in which another judge shall
preside.
- Income tax amendment
- The amendment proposed by congress in 1909 to "have power to
lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived,
without apportionment among the several States, and without
regard to any census or enumeration", was never ratified, or if
it was, is hereby repealed and rescinded retroactively. Taxes on
equal exchanges, such as on the recipient of salary or wages for
labor, shall not be taxable to a party who may not pass on the
cost to a buyer.
- Official misconduct
- Congress shall have power to enact statutes to punish official
misconduct, including the violation of the rights, privileges,
or immunities of any person, abuse of discretion, violation of
any oath or affirmation, dereliction of duty, failure to
supervise, or conduct unbecoming.
- Judicial officers
- Section 1. Judicial officers shall consist of all persons
sworn to duty in a court of the United States or subdivisions
thereof, including but not limited to court presidents, judges,
magistrates, clerks, bailiffs, attorneys, witnesses, trial
jurors, or recorders.
- Section 2. Subsequently appointed presidents, judges,
magistrates, and clerks shall not be appointed permanently to a
particular court, but periodically reassigned to courts and
cases by sortition, with presidents or judges reassigned at
random to courts each year, and at random to cases, other
officials other than jurors assigned to courts for up to four
years, and trial jurors selected at random to each case.
- Interventions in court
- Intervenors in cases who argue in defense of the Constitution
shall not be excluded or impeded, in trial or appeal, in the
courtroom or outside it, or in presenting legal arguments to
juries.
- Ceded parcels
- Parcels ceded to the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress by
consent of a state legislature must be specifically described by
metes and bounds at the time of cession, and all state citizens
of such parcel shall remain citizens of the ceding state for all
elections to offices of the state or the Union. The boundaries
of such parcels shall be clearly marked to give notice to any
person entering or leaving which jurisdiction he or she is in.
- Impeachment of Vice-President
- In a trial on impeachment of the Vice-President he shall not
preside over the Senate.
- Original jurisdiction
- Article III Section 2 Clause 2 is amended to allow lower
courts to have original jurisdiction for cases in which a state
is a party.
- Removal Power
- Congress shall have power to prescribe the terms of removal of
individuals holding offices created by specific statute, and
requiring the consent of the Senate for appointments, including
standards of good behavior for judges, but the President or
other executive officers shall have power to remove officers
they have the exclusive authority to appoint for positions for
which there is no specific term of service.
- Initial terms of senators
- Terms of admission of new states, agreed by Congress and the
legislature of the new state, shall provide for terms of six,
four, or two years for the initial senators, to comply with
staggered terms according to Article I Section 3.
- Enforcement of court orders
- Congress shall have power to authorize officials of the United
States to execute court orders.
- Detaining of witnesses
- It shall be a violation of due process to indefinitely detain
a person who may be a witness.
- No oppressive surveillance
- The people shall be secure against general and pervasive
surveillance in private and public places, whether done by
government or private actors, that has a chilling effect on
their private and civic activities, without specific public
court orders pursuant to acts of Congress for national security.
Substantive amendments โ These
are mainly to delegate powers that would be denied by the
clarifying amendments, but which some think the central government
should have:
- Volume of legislation
- The total size of all current statutes, measured in bytes of
text, shall not exceed that as of 1900, and for any act which
adds text, an equal quantity of text must be repealed. The total
volume of all regulations shall not exceed six times that of all
statutes. Congress shall not adopt more provisions per year than
can be adequately heard and decided by United States courts
within two years of enactment, and if more are adopted, courts
shall have authority to summarily strike them.
- Judicial appeals
- At each level of appeal a case shall first be heard by a
randomly selected panel of three, appealable to a randomly
selected panel of nine, and thence appealable to either a
randomly selected or en banc panel of twenty-seven, depending on
the number of judges assigned to that court.
- Rule of decision in judicial panels
- Any multimember judicial panel must be unanimous to sustain a
claimed power of government against the claim of a citizen that
the government lacks such power. If there is any doubt
concerning whether an official has a delegated power, the
presumption shall be that he does not. Courts shall not defer to
the judgment of legislative or executive officials, but shall
require strict proof of their findings or authority, with a
presumption of nonauthority.
- Decision of jurisdiction
- Any question of which court, national, state, or local, shall
have jurisdiction, shall be decided by a grand jury of citizens
selected at random, if possible, from outside the jurisdictions
of the courts in contention.
- Pollution
- Congress shall have power to regulate or prohibit substances
or actions which are likely to cause resource degradation or
depletion or injury to people across state, territorial, or
national borders, but not those confined within the borders of a
state or territory.
- Coastal waters and airspace
- Congress shall have exclusive legislative jurisdiction over
coastal waters from the low tide mark out to a distance of three
miles, and over airspace at or above 1000 feet above terrain
features, including the power to regulate the movement of
vessels through such territory. States shall have jurisdiction
for land above the low tide mark.
- Broadcast bands
- Congress shall have exclusive legislative jurisdiction over
the allocation of broadcast bands for transmissions in excess of
1 watt.
- In rem forfeitures forbidden
- Any claim against a nonperson must specify an owner, even if
it is initially an unknown owner, and the last possessor shall
be presumed the owner unless title to another is proved. No
asset shall be forfeited except to pay a lawful fine, imposed by
verdict of a jury, by selling at public auction.
- State secrets
- Congress shall have power to punish for disclosure of state
secrets properly so designated by a court of competent
jurisdiction, but it shall also have power to punish the
concealment of official misconduct under the guise of state
secrecy.
- Court opinions
- Opinions of all courts, majority, concurring, or dissenting,
shall be signed by each judicial officer participating, and all
decisions and opinions shall be published except for state
secrets. The summary, findings, orders, and commentary shall be
clearly separated and labeled as such.
- Recording of legal proceedings
- Except in an emergency in which recording is impossible, all
legislative, judicial, and administrative proceedings, other
than trial jury and grand jury meetings, shall be recorded with
current state of the art audio and video technologies, archived,
and released as Congress, for federal proceedings, or a state
legislature, for state proceedings, or a court of competent
jurisdiction, shall direct. Persons present in a legislative
conference or court shall not be barred from recording the
proceedings except to forbid them from disclosing the members of
the jury before the trial is concluded.
- Supermajority for criminal penalties
- Congress or a state legislature shall not enact legislation
with criminal penalties without support by a vote of 94% of the
members, not just of the members present and voting.
- Proxy voting in legislative bodies elected by population
- Members of the United States House of Representatives, and
houses of state legislatures whose members represent political
subdivisions that elect a number of representatives in
proportion to their population, shall elect representatives at
large, and the number of allocated representatives receiving the
most votes shall be declared elected.
- Each such member shall cast a fractional vote equal to the
number N of members allocated to that state or subdivision,
multiplied by the number of votes he or she received in the
election, divided by the total number of votes cast in the
state or subdivision for the N candidates receiving the most
votes, in all proceedings of the house to which elected.
- Each candidate shall, prior to election, declare a list of
successors if he or she becomes unable to serve, or is
removed from office, who shall be appointed to replace him
or her.
- If the chain of successors is exhausted the State Governor
shall appoint the successor.
- Selection of members of legislative bodies not elected by
population
- Members of the United States Senate, and houses of state
legislatures whose members represent political subdivisions not
based on population, shall be selected by a multi-stage
nominating process that first randomly selects precinct panels
of twenty-three, who then elect a person from each precinct,
from among whom are randomly selected twenty-three persons for
the next higher jurisdiction or district, and thus by
alternating random selection and election to the next level,
when they reach the top level, the number of randomly selected
candidates shall be two, who shall be the nominees on the ballot
for the final election by general electors, except that general
electors may write-in other persons.
- Electors may vote for more than one nominee, using the
method of approval voting.
- There must also be an alternative of "none of the above".
- The nominee receiving the most votes shall be declared
elected, unless "none of the above" wins, in which case the
position shall remain vacant until the next election.
- Firearm exclusion zones
- Congress shall have power, on territory under its exclusive
jurisdiction, and state legislatures, on territory under their
exclusive jurisdiction, to forbid weapons within penal
facilities, courthouses, and government offices, provided that
they provide for a secure system for checking in weapons on
entry, and return on leaving, and guarantee the safety of
persons within against all injury they might be able to avoid by
having the means to defend themselves or others.
- Weapons of mass destruction
- Congress shall have power, on territory under its exclusive
jurisdiction, and state legislatures, on territory under their
exclusive jurisdiction, to forbid unsupervised possession of
destructive devices or weapons each discharge of which can
produce the death or injury of more than 1000 individuals over a
space of 1000 square meters and a time of one hour.
- Eminent domain
- Congress shall have the power of eminent domain only on
territory for which it has exclusive jurisdiction, and state
legislatures only on exclusively state territory. State
legislatures must consent to Congress taking by eminent domain
any parcels within their territory. No taking by either Congress
or a state legislature shall be for any purpose other than
public use for a period of at least 20 years.
- Legal tender
- Congress shall have the power to define legal tender only on
territory for which it has exclusive jurisdiction, and state
legislatures only on exclusively state territory. Neither
Congress nor the states may make anything legal tender that does
not consist of, or is backed by, gold, silver, or energy, nor
use anything but legal tender to pay its debts, or accept
anything but legal tender for the payment of taxes.
- Occupational licensing
- There shall be no occupational licensing, formal or informal,
national, state, or local, especially of lawyers by lawyers or
judges.
- Constitutional authority for legislation
- No legislative act or provision thereof shall have the force
of law unless the constitutional authority for it is explicitly
cited, verifiable by proving an unbroken chain of logical
derivation.
- Violation of the Constitution
- It shall be a capital offense for any official at any level of
government to violate this Constitution.
- Sunset of legislation
- Every bill enacted by Congress shall expire two years after
enactment, unless re-enacted, or unless it is constitutionally
mandated.
- Number of members of the House of Representatives
- The number of members of the House of Representatives shall be
two hundred eighty-five plus three times the number of states.
- Selecting electors for president and vice-president
- The electors for president and vice-president shall be
selected in each state by the following procedure:
- An initial panel of citizens qualified to vote in that
state equal to one hundred times the number of electors to
be selected from that state shall be selected at random, in
a process that shall be supervised by a randomly-selected
grand jury specially empaneled for that task;
- Members of this initial panel shall take an examination in
which each shall recite from memory 20 randomly selected
clauses of this Constitution, and shall receive a score of
one for each clause he or she is able to recite without
error;
- A second panel shall be selected from the first,
consisting of ten times the number of electors to be
selected, with the odds of selecting each weighted by the
score he or she received in the examination, and with
exclusion of any who scored zero;
- Members of the second panel shall meet, and each shall
rank all the others in descending order of civic virtue,
giving a score indicating the rank consisting of the number
of panelists for the highest down to one for the lowest;
- The electors shall then be selected from this second panel
at random, but weighted by his or her average rank from the
previous round of peer assessments.
- Aboriginal American rights
- Treaties with Native American tribes shall be honored, either
with the original land taken from them being returned to them,
land of equivalent value deeded to them, or money equal in
current value to the land taken paid to them. Conveyance or
payment shall be to a trust for each tribe controlled by that
tribe. Administrative supervision of tribes shall be terminated.
- Power to punish perjury
- Perjury shall consist of the violation of any oath or
affirmation, including that made for public office, and Congress
shall have authority to criminally punish it only when made in a
forum of the United States, or by an officer or agent of the
United States.
- Power to punish fraud
- Congress shall have authority to criminally punish fraud only
when committed on territory of the United States over which it
has exclusive jurisdiction.
- Certification of amendments
- To be deemed ratified, the results of votes of the legislature
or convention in each state shall be reviewed and verified by a
vote of at least 18 of a randomly selected grand jury of 23 from
citizens of that state who are not dependent on public funds for
their support; and the reports of all such grand juries shall be
reviewed and verified by a vote of at least 18 of a randomly
selected grand jury of 23 from citizens of the United States who
are not dependent on public funds for their support.
- Certification of eligibility to hold office
- To be deemed eligible the qualifications of any candidate
shall be reviewed and verified by a vote of at least 18 of a
randomly selected grand jury of 23 from citizens of the United
States who are not dependent on public funds for their support.
- Unfunded mandates, abuse of spending power
- Congress may not require any state or local official, or
private person, of the United States of America, to expend any
resources without providing such resources, or make the
provision of resources conditional on performing actions
Congress does not have the power to command, except for militia
organization, training, and operations, or for specific
performance on a voluntary contract.
- Amendments without Congress
- Whenever the legislatures or conventions called by the
legislatures of two-thirds of the states shall adopt an
identical proposal for an amendment to this Constitution within
a four-year period, such proposal shall be submitted to the
legislatures of all the states, and the proposal shall be deemed
ratified if the state legislatures, or state conventions called
by the legislatures, of three-fourths of the states shall ratify
it within two years from submission.
- Power to cancel or suspend economic activity
Congress shall have, and with a treaty with other nations
collectively producing more than half of the world's tangible
goods, shall exercise, power to do the following for each year
evenly divisible by seven, for a shmita period at least three
and not more than nine months:
- Cancel all debts, securities, fiat currencies, and
derivatives thereof;
- Liquidate or break up all for-profit corporate entities
and activities into organizations comprised of not more than
300 individuals and investors;
- Regulate emergent behavior that might act in concert like
a corporate entity;
- Suspend all extraction, including mining planting,
harvesting, and fishing, all manufacturing, and all
transport beyond 100 kilometers of durable goods, other than
those essential for defense, justice and law enforcement,
water, power, or medical services;
- Promote storage systems to enable persons to endure the
shmita period;
- Forbid the importation of goods subject to the shmita
during the shmita period;
- Call out militia to enforce the shmita.
- Advocate for the Constitution
- In any judicial or administrative case in which there is a
constitutional issue, it shall be deemed reversible error if
there is no adequate advocate for the Constitution as originally
meant and understood.
- Challenges to debt
- No debt by the United States or any department thereof shall
be incurred or held valid that funds consumption by other than
military personnel and militia personnel in federal service, or
funds payment of principal or interest on existing debt; and any
person may challenge the validity of any debt, whereupon the
government shall have 20 days to prove it is authorized by law
and not for consumption except as provided above, failing which
the debt shall be deemed null and void.