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Amend the U.S. Constitution, Say 27 States

posted by martyb on Friday December 11 2015, @05:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the pandora's-box dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The U.S. Constitution has 27 amendments; each was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states.

However, the Constitution sets forth another procedure, never before used, for amending the Constitution. At the request of two thirds of the states, a constitutional convention would be held, at which amendments could be proposed. Any proposals would become part of the Constitution if three fourths of the states ratified them, either at state conventions or in the state legislatures.

Currently, 27 of the needed 34 states have petitioned Congress for a constitutional convention, for the ostensible purpose of writing a balanced-budget amendment (BBA). However, the convention might propose other changes in addition or instead of a BBA—even a total rewrite of the Constitution—if 38 states agreed, the changes would become law.

In November, legislators from 30 states met in Salt Lake City to discuss the matter.

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  • (Score: 2) by snick on Friday December 11 2015, @02:25PM

    by snick (1408) on Friday December 11 2015, @02:25PM (#274971)

    Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
    Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
    Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

    Simple, concise, should be non-controversial. Turned into a total pie fight.
    And our politics today are way more polarized now than when that innocuous amendment went down in flames. There is no way on earth (no way in the universe) that we could address _any_ hard problems without it devolving into a circus.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @02:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @02:53PM (#274980)

    What is interesting is they do not even need a constitutional convention to do it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Text [wikipedia.org]

    The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people

    So just pass the laws in all of those states that say 'the federal gov shall balance its budget'. The key bit is "nor prohibitied by it to the States". The interstate clause cuts both ways.

    Something like "for the federal government to conduct its business with in this state it must adopt a balanced budget"

    Simple easy and you probably could get it on the ballots of most states with a few thousand signatures.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @08:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @08:53PM (#275143)

    Sex? Sex is already a protected class. What rights under law do you think either sex is lacking?