In the spirit of Art I, Section 9:
“Congress may not compel any state or individual to engage in economic activity, nor may Congress regulate activity that is merely incidental to interstate commerce. No tax may be laid to regulate activity that Congress cannot directly regulate.”
Not that Congress would ever pass this, but if 34 states were to call a Convention for the express purpose….
See Randy Barnett at Volokh for the original idea.
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I would also add: “No copyright may extend longer than 50 years.” But that’s a bit afield.
Comment by Kevin Murphy — 3/26/2010 @ 11:45 am
Better find a way to make one Congress mistrustful enough of future Congresses to enact an amendment the old fashioned way. The trouble with having 34 states call a constitutional convention is that we’d end up with a constitutional convention.
Comment by Xrlq — 3/27/2010 @ 11:20 am
So, how about making Congress mistrustful of an imminent Constitutional Convention? Say, somewhere around state #31?
Comment by Kevin Murphy — 3/27/2010 @ 11:53 am
It might work, but I think we have more to fear from a constitutional convention than Congress does.
Comment by Xrlq — 3/27/2010 @ 12:36 pm
I know that the received wisdom is that a Constitutional Convention cannot be controlled and all sorts of horrors are imagined. After all, the last one kinda rewrote the whole thing.
But I just don’t buy it. There is no reason to think that a convention, called for for a specific purpose such as restricting federal encroachment on the states, would run amok as everyone seems to think.
1) The States appoint the delegates.
2) Presumably these would not be silly people.
3) They would have their reputations in the balance.
4) Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the system is not unworkable. The amendment above would suffice to fix it.
5) Since secrecy in the modern age is impossible, the public reaction against wide-ranging changes would be immediate and clear.
6) Lastly, even if they DID go berserk and repealed the Bill of Rights or made Obama President-for-Life, it would take 38 states to sign off on it.
The Article V convention hasn’t been used yet because there hasn’t been a NEEDED amendment that Congress refused to consider. Times change.
Comment by Kevin Murphy — 3/28/2010 @ 4:18 pm
Some amendments:
No government unions.
No organization that is affiliated with, or practices voter registration or drives can collect taxpayer funds from any source.
Comment by Apogee — 3/29/2010 @ 12:33 am
As I recall, the 21st Amendment started out with states issuing a call for a Constitutional Convention to consider the Amendment. When the 20th or 21st state issued a call, the Amendment was introduced in Congress, passed, and sent to the states. This happens every time a large percentage of states issue calls for a Constitutional Convention.
Comment by Mark L — 3/29/2010 @ 4:13 pm