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.