My 4 Simple Amendments to Debug the Constitution

Here’s a summary of my 4 suggested amendments:

      1. States should have automatic legal standing to sue to block executive orders they feel are unconstitutional.  As it stands now, the 25 states suing to block Obama’s immigration executive orders had to show they would suffer money damages from Obama’s actions in order to gain the legal standing for a lawsuit.
      2. Congress should have to vote to approve or reject every regulation.  There could be a “fast track” procedure for regulations, that is an up or down vote with no amendments and no filibusters.  There should also be a provision in the amendment that any member of Congress can call for a roll call vote on a package of regulations after they have been formally presented to Congress and been waiting 120 days.  Once the privileged motion is made, the vote has to be taken immediately.

  3. The Supreme Court needs a check on it.  My idea is that the states should be the check.  If over half of the states’ legislatures vote for a minority Supreme Court decision within 2 years of the decision, then the majority opinion is overruled and the minority opinion takes force instead.  The Constitution is a contract between the states and the federal government.  This provision strikes directly at unilateral Constitutional change by 5 to 4 votes on the Supreme Court.  It’s far superior to term limits because it removes the decision.  However, it’s limited because the choice of alternatives is only the minority opinions in the same case.

  4. Any Balanced Budget Amendment ought to tie a balanced budget to asset sales and tie completed asset sales to a wage freeze on all federal employees until enough assets have been sold to offset the previous year’s deficit.   This means that nobody, including Congressmen, get more money salary, wages, office expenses or any other remuneration, than what they got in the previous fiscal year until enough assets are sold to realize enough to pay off last years’ rise in debt.  People who get promoted do not get promotional pay increases or bonuses.