Chapter Twelve_

THE ARCH-AMENDMENT:
Outline, and Prototype Text

 

 

Mandatum lucerna est, et lex lux.

Proverbs 6:23

 

 

Our task is to raise a standard to which
the wise and honest can repair,
recognizing that the event is
in the hands of God.

George Washington

 ══ INTERACTIVE CONTENTS ══

 

Why Twelve?

 

On Size & Scale

 

Positive vs. Negative features

 

Outline of the arch-amendment

 

Prototype text of the twelve lights amendment

    Political Preamble

Section One

   Two

             Three

             Four

             Five

             Six

    Economic Preamble

          Section Seven

             Eight

             Nine

    Cultural Preamble

Section Ten

             Eleven

             Twelve

 

The Written Constitution:
          From the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to the 27th Amendment of 1992

 

 

ON THE TWELVEFOLD STRUCTURE:
WHY TWELVE?

            The twelvefold structure of the proposed arch-amendment has precedent as old as history itself.  Ever since human civilization sprang forth in Sumer and ancient Egypt 5½ millennia ago, mankind has measured years in a dozen increments or months.  The number of hours shown on a clock face is also twelve.  In all of human history, no human being has walked the surface of the moon except the twelve astronauts who fulfilled the goal set in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy of the United States.[1]

            The number twelve carries an aura of mystery or enchantment that makes its way into legends.  In Camelot of Arthurian fame the Knights of the Round Table were governed by twelve basic rules.  Later, Twelve Paladins (douzepers) formed the peerage – the elite of twelve knights – who attended Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire.

In addition, the formulation of legal reform into twelve sections has firm precedent in secular legal history:  The American system of law has its basis in the common law of England, which derives a number of its principles from the ancient Roman law.[2]  Following the roots further, the legal system of Rome was an outgrowth of the first codification of law in the early roman republic, the famous lex XII tabularum (c. 450 B.C.) or law of the Twelve Tables.[3]  That pioneering law code of the Romans was thus an ancient antecedent of our own legal system.  For our purposes its relevance is not in its content, but in its structure.  As a wellspring of the Western legal system, the law of the Twelve Tables provides a venerable precedent for the form — that is a kind of classical archetype, or original pattern, for the twelvefold structure of an arch-amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In the 16th century, AD, governmental despotism by German upper classes inspired a massive popular rebellion under the banner of Twelve Articles.  This twelvefold plan for reform was composed by popular leaders.[4]  Notwithstanding that the Twelve Articles were couched in explicitly Christian language, only a handful of sympathetic nobles supported the insurrection.  It failed, in part, because the Peasants Revolt of 1525 was almost exclusively a bottom-up revolution by serfs, miners, working class townsmen, and a few lesser clergymen.  Leadership was poor in more ways than one.

Their grievances included intolerable taxes, reductions of freedom and a host of oppressions carried out by a privileged class hell-bent on keeping its dominance.[5]  Under the banner of the Twelve Articles, recruitment to the nascent revolution was initially such “an overwhelming success” that within the space of several months some 300,000 adherents took up arms, some wielding only pitchforks.  Soon much of Germany was under their control.[6]  But before the enthusiastic peasants could be formed into a trained military force, the smaller but disciplined armies of the nobility put a ruthless and bloody end to the rebellion.

The populist insurgency proposed in this book hearkens back to the Twelve Articles for nothing of content, and certainly not to the disorganization of the peasant rising; but rather to the urgency of reform, to the grass roots upsurge, and to the twelvefold structure of the constellation amendment.  Thus historical landmarks some five centuries past, and nearly 25 centuries, can still serve as prologue to the future.

 

Flag of the European Union, held by young Michael Struble

Ongoing use of the twelvefold pattern includes the following.  In the 1980’s the European Union introduced the old formula into its new flag.  By 2007 the number of member states in the EU had risen to 27, yet the EU stayed with a circle of gold stars numbering twelve.  According to the official EU webpage, “the number of stars has nothing to do with the number of Member States.  There are twelve stars because the number twelve is traditionally the symbol of perfection, completeness and unity.  The flag will therefore remain unchanged regardless of future EU enlargements.”[7]

In America, our Bill of Rights emerged from the first Congress in 1789 as a package of twelve proposed Amendments to the Constitution – although but ten won ratification at the time (the eleventh much later and the twelfth never).

In the United States and Great Britain there is the longstanding legal precedent of twelve member juries.  Every panel of “twelve tried and true” represent a venerable and ongoing tradition in Anglo-American law.   Also in American education, the longstanding practice is that high school graduation culminates twelve grades of schooling.

 

In the Jewish and Christian religions, humanity’s foremost expression of spirituality, the twelvefold pattern is a recurrent formula in the Old and New Testaments.  Notwithstanding the politically correct textbooks demanded of late by revisionist historians, and by the foes of faith in public life, most informed Americans would acknowledge our Judeo-Christian heritage to be central to the cultural heritage of the United States.  It is worth reviewing, therefore, how the scriptures of both Christianity and Judaism reveal symbolic and mystical implications for the number twelve.

The Old Testament records that after Moses received the Ten Commandments, the Israelites honored Yahweh’s covenant with their twelve tribes by erecting a monument of twelve pillars near Mount Sinai.[8]  During subsequent centuries the Israelites employed this twelvefold pattern on many special occasions.[9]  For example, at the great celebration and dedication of the reconstructed temple in c. 515 B.C., valuable livestock numbering twelve were offered to God in atonement for the sins of the entire Jewish nation.[10]

The new covenant of the Christian era continued to honor these Old Testament antecedents.[11]  In the miracle of the loaves and fishes, after upwards of 5000 people had finished eating, the leftovers filled up twelve baskets.[12]  Also, the eleven Apostles promoted St. Matthias in order to restore their number to the original twelve, and the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, shows the twelvefold pattern connected in several respects with the celestial realm.[13]  A very old Christian tradition celebrates the twelve days of Christmas.

Just as the number twelve has special implications for Christians and Jews, so the Judeo-Christian symbolism implicit in the twelvefold structure of a modern law may serve as a kind of vessel in which to offer up national repentance.  An American lex XII luminum can be an offering indicating this country's desire to seek pardon and a return to our moral and spiritual heritage.

Americans who find pagan antiquity a more appealing model might look to the twelve labors of Hercules.  The Herculean superpower status of the United States combined with our own moral defilement, make the mythical Greek hero a fitting archetype.  His twelve labors of expiation for grievous sins against his family offer an ancient analogy that applies aptly to our situation today.[14]  Like Hercules, America is murdering the family; like him our country must follow through with collective suicide or else undertake atonement.[15]

 

 

ON SIZE & SCALE

            After a glance at the Constellation Amendment, one is immediately struck by its dimensions.  The prototype text of the proposed arch-amendment is approximately equal to the present length of the U.S. Constitution.

Stone of 12 corners, Cuzco Peru

The average per section is 709 words, or 2.7 times the 261 word average for the first twelve sections of the original Constitution.[16]  The prototype law ranges from 257 words in section eight to 1181 words in section twelve.  Like Peru’s renowned 12-cornered stone,[17] carefully cut and fitted by Inca stone masons centuries ago, so likewise the arch-amendment is designed to fit precisely within a larger edifice presenting many and sundry components.  In other words, the prototype text is drafted not for angular symmetry, but to interact with the polity, economy and culture of 21st century America.

 

When the critic bemoans the idea of doubling the length of the Constitution, and when he begins to recite the merits of brevity, be sure to respond that 45 percent of the text is under preamble I, which deals with a congressional structure and a Federal bureaucracy whose complexity and size would astound and probably appall the Framers of the Constitution.  A few brief sentences will not suffice to streamline today's Capitol City apparatus.  Another 31 percent of the arch-amendment is under preamble III where sensitive cultural questions are at issue, and finesse is a key to good law.

Moreover, in its motives and intent the Constellation Amendment resembles legal reforms like the Justinian Code [529-534, A.D.] under which Tribonian and his committee of 17 examined the centuries old edifice of authoritative commentary on Roman Law.  Then they digested it down to essentials, that is to one-twentieth its former size.[18] Just as the law before Justinian had become engulfed in clouds of confusion and contradiction, opaque to citizens, and murky even to attorneys for the most part,[19] so the US Constitution as composed by the Framers is obscured today by a Jovian atmosphere of judge-made law.

No, the skeptic will argue: “you cannot cut by adding; you cannot get rid of the old by taking on something new.  However householders who have battled the accumulation of moss know otherwise.  They attach a zinc strip to the roof of the house, and in the end the accumulation of moss is reduced by a mass greater than the weight of the zinc.

There are many analogies:  Adding a second pane to each window reduces home heating bills by amounts far in excess of the cost of the extra panes.  Larger wings may give airplanes more lift.  Optional software can be added to screen out the accumulation of spam or pop-ups on your computer.

Likewise the Constellation Amendment will purge the dross and bring the written document to light again.  New provisions will empower Congress repeatedly to sweep away the over-accumulation of precedent.  In conjunction with congressional powers to prune case precedent, section 5:5 establishes a joint Senate-House committee to organize Congress in its task of periodically thinning out the adjudicational clutter.

Though the arch-amendment may rival in size the original constitution, it should be seen as a keen scythe for economy and brevity, aimed at reducing radically the jungle of court accumulations.  The constellation amendment will unfetter the U.S. Constitution, bowed down by many decades of courtroom accretions.  The written Constitution can then emerge anew, with the contours of its original intent discernible in the Framers’ clear and eloquent prose.

 

As written and amended under Article V, the present text of the U.S. Constitution is remarkably short when compared and contrasted to our 50 State constitutions.  At 7100 words it is only about one-fourth the average length of the various State constitutions.[20]  Even the shortest (Vermont’s) exceeds the U.S. Constitution in length by some 1200 words.

It is sometimes said that brevity accounts for the longevity of our national constitution, but the Massachusetts constitution is older (1780) than the U.S. Constitution (1788) and also five times longer.  The 13 original states have constitutions averaging 22,632 words, or almost half again what the Constitution would be after ratification of the constellation amendment [under 16,000]. 

            One would expect the complexity of a republic to be proportional to its size, and indeed constitutions in the top ten states by population are more than double the length of constitutions in the ten least populated states [36,427 vs. 17,413].  Yet the largest political entity of them all, the USA, has but 7100 words in its Constitution, which may help explain why it affords so much latitude for courts inclined to legislate from the bench.  A "government of laws not men" requires quantitatively enough of the supreme law of the land to avoid the risk of a power vacuum that ambitious and unscrupulous men are only too ready to fill.  A little more than doubling the US Constitution to 15,767 words would still leave the venerable document about half the average State constitution [30,328].[21]

            It is likewise reassuring to look at the length of written constitutions that govern leading foreign nations. 

 

POSITIVE VS. NEGATIVE

            Anyone challenged to exonerate the constellation amendment from charges of excessive negativity, i.e. being a litany of “thou shalt nots,” might adopt a dual line of defense.  First, the preeminent model of good law is the Decalogue.  It has stood the test of time like no other piece of legislation (if such a term applies to a divine ordinance), notwithstanding that a majority of the Ten Commandments are “thou shalt nots.” 

            Second, only one-third of the constellation amendment proscribes in the negative.  Most provisions take the form of “thou shalt,” as follows:

 

Positives (+)   * establishing rotation in office democratizing congressional committee structure introducing ombudsmen into the bureaucracy   reinforcing the 2nd amendment reinforcing Congress’ role in declaring War reinforcing domiciliary security   incentives to invest in rentals free exercise of religion in public life (esp. schools) freedom of states to contract with religious schools promotion of full-employment      protecting the environment * protecting children from immoral life styles * protecting the sanctity of human life * protecting the sanctity of sex * reinforcing the balance of powers * reasserting national sovereignty

Negatives (–), Prohibited to:    Surrender national sovereignty Homestead in the House of Representatives Countenance sodomy via marriage or adoption Use the Constitution to promote abortion Hold ajar the floodgates to pornography Legislate from the bench   * Six in the plus (+) column are rephrased above in the negative (–)

 

OUTLINE OF THE CONSTELLATION AMENDMENT

(the reader may click on hyperlinks, and use back arrow to return)

 

INVOCATION to the Constellation Amendment.

Political Preamble.  General Authority of Government.

Section One.  Status of the U.S. Congress

A. Rotation in office, U.S. House of Representatives.  Successive reelection confined to the Senate.

B. Path of service for U.S. Representatives, 50 months.

C. Tribunate duties, 2 years.

 

(1) Constituent casework, including service as ombudsman.

(2) Investigative powers in executive branch agencies.

(3) Bureaucratic reductions managed by the Vice President, and subject to triple veto.

D. Changeover interim, preparatory to congressional duties, 2 months.

E.      House term, 2 years.

F. Procedure for recall of Representatives by State legislators & the people

Section Two.  Reformulating Congressional Committees.

A. Three types of committees:

 

(1) Fortnight committees. Membership rotates every 14 days.

(2) Half tribune committees. Joint membership  —  half congressional, half tribunal.

(3) Joint Senate-House committees. Joint membership, entirely congressional.

B. Free election of committee hierarchies by the respective committee or subcommittee membership.

 

(1) Terms of committee and subcommittee officers: annual (House); biennial (Senate). Reelection permissible.

(2) Removals from hierarchy by 2/3 vote of committee or subcommittee.

   (3) Nomination and election of officers by secret ballot and majority decision.

Section Three. Additional Reforms, Senate and House.

A. Moderate salary for Representatives varies directly with median family income in U.S.

B. Privileges and prohibitions for Representatives.

C. Status of ex-Congressmen.

D. Legislative carryover of bills.

E. Easier process of appealing committee negatives to the floor.

F. Majority rule on floor; limits to dilatory tactics.

Section Four.  The Judicial branch:  reforms, checks and balances

A. Clarifies congressional authority over federal courts as per Article III of the Constitution.

B. Bolsters Congress in its old role of limiting court jurisdiction.  New sunset clause:  Automatic reinstatement of Supreme Court jurisdiction after specified interval.

C.    Distinguishes restoration of federal court jurisdiction from the permanently expunged case precedents (judge-made laws).

Section Five. Restoring dead letters in the Constitution

A.     Congressional authority in declaring war, Article I, section 8.

B.     Pertinence to the militia of the Second Amendment.

Section Six.  Transition:  Provisional Government for the Counterrevolution:  Unites political power in a single assembly.

A.     Election and powers of the Transitional Assembly of Cincinnati (TAsC)

B.     Dissolution of the old regime; elections in preparation for the new.

C.     Restoration of separation of powers; expiration of the Transitional Assembly of Cincinnati

 

Economic Preamble.  An Economy Serving Human Beings, not Visa Versa.

Section Seven Promoting Full Employment: authorized ways (not to exclude others).

A.     Ways to Bolster Workers.

1. Workweek reductions, regulated by Federal law.

2. Expansion of the job market by structural means. Congress fosters an economy more receptive to labor intensity.

3. Approach 'B' to take precedent over 'A', as per section 7.

B.     Means: Direct creation of jobs (spending).  

1. Private Enterprise Projects (PEP) Federally initiated but conducted entirely by contracts with private firms.

2. Annual job creation target proposed by President.

3. Congressional responsibility to allocate PEP funds among States, and to designate the general types of projects (macroeconomic).

4. States decide features and location of PEP projects, let contracts, and pay for intrastate administration and overhead (microeconomic).

C. Means: Indirect creation of jobs (taxing). Incentives for labor intensive technologies.

1. Sole source of PEP funds to be a jobs levy, a retail tax graduated from 0% to 10%, with the lower brackets for labor intensive firms and the highest on products produced by robots, or produced by workers in low-wage economies. No PEP projects to be supported by deficit financing.

2. The jobs levy is applied to domestic retail sales, so as to promote a consumer preference in America for products and brands produced by human labor, in sectors where workers remain competitive with machines.

Section Eight. National Sovereignty over our Environment

A.     The primacy of American law

B.     America’s right and duty to exercise good stewardship over the environment

Section Nine. Homes without Property Taxes

A.     Property Taxation Reserved to Local Governments Only

B.     Federal and State Role in Safeguarding Property Rights

C.     Tax Exemptions for Residential Property

D.     Checks and balances in regulating the right to develop property.

Cultural Preamble. To Balance Individual Rights with Community Rights.

Section Ten.  Pro-Life, pro-Family

A.     Abortion / euthanasia: outlawed by the U.S. Constitution.  Enforcement reserved, however, to states alone (not Federal government) in deciding penalties.

B.     Sodomy [practicing homosexuality]:  Neither special rights nor adoption of children.

C.     Cloning: prohibits this perversion of conception.

Section Eleven.  Cultural Detoxification (anti-pornography)

A. Special elective office created, the Cultural Laundress.  Madam CuL selected by the people to biennial terms with rotation mandated after 4 years.

B. Authority of Cultural Laundress to represent community standards relative to pictorial contents of particular films, magazines, etc.; thus drawing definite and democratic lines as to what is deemed obscene by society.  Continued dissemination after the line is drawn will be punishable as felony.

C. Checks to Madam CuL’s  power to cull through the media and entertainment industry, and safeguards for freedom of the press in disseminating the written word.

Section Twelve.  Religion in Public Life.

A. Freeing public school teachers to volunteer Judeo-Christian principles.

1. Twelve minutes per day for Bible reading allowed, under the principle of decentralization to any teacher, grades 7-12, who so desires in his own classroom.

2. Posting of the Ten Commandments and a few Scriptural passages allowable for public school teachers, grades K-12, and on any public property.

B. Provisos and private schools.

1. Checks with avenues for dissent

2. States left at liberty to fund private schools, religious or otherwise.  Checks on purse strings.

            3. Home schooling protected as a constitutional right.

C. Freedom for voluntary prayer exercises in public schools, grades K-12.

1. School prayer exercises authorized in three voluntary forms: silence, solo, and group recitation.

2. Benediction to the Constellation Amendment. 
Seven paragraphs (not to exclude others) available singly or as a unit for use – without fear of litigation – in any public place including the classroom. These seven options include the Old Testament Psalm 89:18, and the Lord's Prayer.

 

 

 

 

 The Twelve Lights Amendment-

 

Prototype Text of an Arch-Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

INVOCATION:  An offering in twelve sections, from a free nation to the good Lord who has long provided for our cause.  Be mindful of thy mercy, O God; forgive us the offenses, and help us to turn, individually and collectively, from license to liberty. 

POLITICAL PREAMBLE [for sections one through six]:  The authority of government is the people's from God.  Of right we the people should upgrade government so that our collective acts may better serve the great Legislator of the universe.

 

 Section One: Status of Congress

 Rotation in office.  Henceforth maximum tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives is one term.  May frequent turnover democratize the House, bringing forth the general wisdom and attention to basics which should distinguish the body politic as a whole.

As regards the Senate, such expertise and institutional memory as derive from longevity in office ought more to characterize the upper chamber.  Accordingly all incumbent U.S. Senators remain eligible for reelection.

Henceforth each odd numbered year, the electorate in each of 435 congressional districts chooses a U.S. Representative.  Campaigning for the office may not begin until May 1 of an election year.  Let the primary election or convention take place the weekend immediately after August third, with the general election held the weekend immediately prior to October 12th.  On the first weekday of November the 435 new U.S. Representatives begin a 50 month path of service in three stages: tribunate (two years), transitional (2 months) and legislative (two years).

 

            Tribunate duties: For two years the 435 serve as tribunes, acting in the following capacities.

                        (1) Ombudsman functions.  The tribune serves his congressional district as an ombudsman – a trouble-shooter for his constituents – who expedites citizen interests and claims at the Federal bureaucracy.  By law Congress may elaborate the tribune's constituent casework duties.

(2) Investigation.  In conjunction with ombudsman duties, and to encourage good government by discovering and dishonoring corruption or incompetence; any pair of tribunes is free to take on the spot testimony, and to examine without interference any public files, data or premises in the U.S. Executive Branch  —  except in the areas or at the times that shall be declared off-limits by Federal law.  Deliberate withholding or falsification of information to a tribune pair is a felony.

The tribunes' power to investigate does not, however, apply to privileged items or private concerns.  Privileged items consist exclusively of foreign policy secrets, and speech or debate which is part of the proceedings in an official assemblage of government.  Private concerns are the personal matters separate and distinct from Federal elections, the working of the Federal government, and the ethical standards required of Federal employees.

(3) Bureaucratic reductions.  Finally the 435 tribunes are assistants to the Vice President in his new duties as director of cuts in the Federal bureaucracy.  In this capacity the Vice President is authorized to abrogate any regulation issued by a Federal agency or bureau which is not part of the legislative or judicial branches of the government, and/or he may abolish entire or in part said bureau or agency.

               Triple Veto:  For 90 days after the Vice President promulgates one of the aforesaid cuts, his decision has pending status, being meanwhile subject to absolute veto by any one of the following three:  (1) the President of the United States, (2) both houses of Congress agreeing, or (3) the committee of cuts.  The veto cast by the committee of cuts may be total or itemized.  To promote bureaucratic reductions of nonpartisan nature, the committee of cuts shall consist of the majority leader of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, and five tribunes elected by all tribunes who are in the opposite party to the incumbent President.  [In case of a multiparty system or a party-less President, what will under this section constitute party opposition to the President shall be decided by the Supreme Court].

            Transitional Duties: After the two years of tribunate duties, the 435 Representatives shall assemble no later than November 4th of the odd numbered year.  They shall convene as frequently as proves necessary to organize leadership, outline budget priorities, and ready rules of order in preparation for the coming term in Congress.  The Vice President decides the location of the transitional assembly and serves as its presiding officer until the 435 designate their Speaker.

            Legislative Duties: Two years and two months into the path of service the 435 advance to the House of Representatives, where their single term of two years begins and ends at noon, January third, even numbered years.  One-twelfth of each term, or two of the 24 months per biennium, shall consist of rescission session(s) during which Congress concentrates on reducing the quantity of laws.

            Recall.  To remove Representatives from the path of service is the prerogative of the people and their State legislators.  When either a majority of the incumbent State legislators who are themselves registered voters in a given congressional district, or ten percent of the electorate of that district, shall petition to recall one of their U.S. Representatives from the path of service, then their State Governor shall order a recall election in the respective district.  Signatories to the petition must be contemporaneous by 60 days.

In a recall election the choice is to retain or recall.  It takes a majority of the voters who cast ballots to recall the Representative in question.  A vote to retain secures the incumbent against further recall elections for the remainder of his path of service.

 Section Two:
Restructured Congressional Committee System

 

A committee of Congress [as distinguished from the committee of the whole] is any voting membership of Congress more numerous than one, and fewer than the parent house(s) of Congress.  A committee is not covered by this section unless it is under the rules of at least one house of Congress, and the committee membership includes adherents of more than one political party.  A subcommittee is a subdivision of a committee and is under jurisdiction of its parent committee.  The general subject matter of motions referred to committees shall identify committees.

Henceforth, each and every committee of Congress is one of three types: a fortnight committee, a half tribune committee, or a joint Senate-House committee.

   (1) Fortnight committees: A fortnight committee is a committee of Congress in which no person may continuously serve as a voting member longer than 14 days.  A person may serve another 14 days on the same fortnight committee after all members of the respective house are availed their turn.  Fortnight committees of the Senate have seven voting members and in the House seventeen voting members, in addition to the chairman who is non-voting.  Fortnight committees are under the rules of but one house of Congress, all the voting members being members of that house, and the chairman being respectively the Speaker of the House or the majority leader of the Senate. 

   (2) Half-tribune committees: A half-tribune committee is any committee under the rules of but one house of Congress in which continuous service can and does exceed 14 days.  In each such committee exactly one-half the voting members are also members of the respective chamber of Congress.  The remaining half are tribunes, preferably volunteers.  From a surplus of volunteers the committee takes its tribunes by lot, but priority is theirs who have the fewest committee assignments.  Upon a scarcity of volunteers, the committee drafts the balance of its tribunes by lot cast among the tribunes with the fewest committee assignments.  Each house of Congress shall establish procedures for casting the lot, and shall allow for party quotas per committee that fairly reflect the partisan membership of the parent house.

   (3) Joint Senate-House committees: A joint Senate-House committee is a committee in which the voting membership is divided between Senators and members of the House of Representatives, with Senators comprising between twenty and fifty percent of each committee membership as the Senate itself shall determine.  Joint Senate-House committees operate under joint rules agreed upon by both houses of Congress.

On each question before a particular committee of Congress, a voting member has one and only one vote; excepting the committee be deadlocked on a motion, with at least an hour's recess between two equal divisions, whereupon the respective committee chairman casts an extra vote.

C

ommittee and Sub-committee hierarchies.  In all committees or subcommittees of Congress, excepting fortnight committees, the officers serve annual terms that end with each congressional year.  Terms in a subcommittee hierarchy correspond chronologically to the terms in the parent committee.  Fortnight committees elect hierarchies by show of hands for whatever duration they designate.

To fill any vacancy in the above hierarchies at the outset of a Congress, committees and subcommittees may appoint temporary officers as they see fit, provided they hold a regular election within one month.  At any time, by two-thirds vote, the respective voting members may remove a committee or subcommittee officer.   And at scheduled ends of terms incumbents are re-eligible.

For the above terms each officer is freely nominated and elected by his respective colleagues — that is by fellow voting members within respectively the committee or subcommittee.  Half-tribune committee chairmen shall, however, be members of Congress.  And if dual chairmanship proves desirable in a joint Senate-House committee, committee members from the Senate may elect their chair while the House portion does likewise.

A motion and second suffices to nominate.  Except in fortnight committees, the election of committee officers is by secret ballot and majority decision.

 

 Section Three:  Particular reforms, Senate and House.

 

Status and salary of Representatives.  Salary for a member of Congress shall be twice the median income of the American household.

Throughout the three stages of the path of service, a Representative’s legal privileges and prohibitions follow the same principles as for a member of the House.  Lest Presidential patronage sway Representatives, no President may nominate or appoint to Federal office anyone who served as Representative during his Presidential incumbency, more recently than two years prior to the appointment.  Nor until after leaving the path of service may an incumbent Representative solicit, receive, or arrange to receive money to campaign for another office.  As regards any state’s delegation to the path of service, state law may also regulate contacts between lobbyists and the respective state delegation; and also may bar contributions – and/or the offer of positions in private firms – to candidates, incumbents, or former Representatives.

F

ormer Representatives.  Ex-Congressmen are qualified for the following triad of civil honors provided they have served in all three stages of the path of service, including the full biennium in the House, and have presented to the clerk of the House of Representatives a notarized account of their performance in office:  First, when appearing on the ballot in Federal, State or local elections, a qualified former Representative is entitled to have his completion of the path of service indicated on the ballot.  Second, former Representatives constitute a local advisory body (LAB) whose yeas and nays will be available to the President upon his request, and to either house of Congress when petitioned for by one-fifth the members.  However, no delay of bills is required pending the results of such a poll.  All polling of the LAB is public record, and except for the obtaining and processing of yeas and nays, and for credentials, the LAB shall receive no public funding; LAB membership earns no pay.  Nor shall ex-members of Congress have privileged access to the floor of Congress or to committee chambers.  Third, former Representatives may, as provided in section 11:3, propose nominees for the office of Cultural Laundress.

L

egislative carryover.  Henceforth a Congress is annual in duration to reflect the elections during odd as well as even numbered years.  Each Congress begins and ends at noon on January third although Congress may by law delay convening for up to six calendar days.  The un-passed motions introduced in one house of Congress remain active for one subsequent Congress and can be acted upon without being reintroduced in either house or re-passed in the other house — provided, however, that motions passed by one house may still be repealed in that house up until the motion is enacted into law.  All questions before Congress shall be stated as motions.

S

ubordination of committees to the majority.  When one-fifth the membership of either house of Congress petitions for consideration of any active motion, then within half the days remaining in the congressional year the respective house must afford that motion floor consideration, i.e. debate during an ongoing session.  A petition for consideration is mobile  —  to be signed wherever the petitioner locates a willing signatory.  Signed petitions can only be presented to the respective house while it is in session during the period February through September.

M

ajority rule on the floor.  Whenever a motion receives floor consideration, then within a maximum of twenty-five hours of floor consideration the respective house must decide amendments and vote the motion up or down as amended  —  unless a simple majority of members present and voting, while said motion is pending, shall otherwise resolve the motion.

 

 Section Four:  Checks & Balances for the Judicial Branch

Jurisdiction over federal courts.  As originally provided in Article III, sections 1 and 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the power of Congress to regulate by law the appellate jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court is hereby clarified and applied to all Federal Courts.  Whenever an act of Congress strips a specific jurisdiction from the federal judiciary, the court of last resort for cases in that jurisdiction becomes the respective State supreme court.  Such courts remain duty bound to enforce the U.S. Constitution as well as federal statutes, and to honor federal court precedent(s) that Congress has not voided as per section 4:2-3.  Congress may by law, at any time, restore to the Federal Courts a jurisdiction (as distinguished from an associated precedent). 

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recedent cutoff date.  Coterminous with each denial of jurisdiction to Federal Courts shall be a precedent cutoff — insofar as cases pertain directly to the issue under adjudication.  Such a precedent cutoff eliminates all the pertinent prior case precedent going back to the centennial for ratification of the Bill of Rights; unless, however, Congress shall by law specify a precedent cutoff date more recent than December 15, 1891.  But such a precedent cutoff date shall antedate by at least twelve years the act of Congress denying jurisdiction.  Decisions shall cease to qualify as standing case precedent the moment the act of Congress voids them by removing jurisdiction.

Federal court decisions rendered before the precedent cutoff date retain their status as legal precedent.  Also, subject to section 4:5, Congress may demarcate isolated time intervals for retention, or specifically protect historic court cases, that pertain directly to the jurisdiction in question.  However, in cases focused on racial equality, unless reversed by the Judiciary, all federal case precedent decided prior to the ratification of this arch-Amendment shall stand, insofar as it governs relations between the races — notwithstanding what Congress may do under this Amendment or under Article III, sections 1 and 2 of the Constitution.

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unset clause. Under Article III, section 2, any regulation, limitation or suspension by Congress of the appellate jurisdiction of the Federal Judiciary shall henceforth expire automatically with the regularly scheduled U.S. presidential inauguration. 

As regards case precedent, however, once a case or cluster of federal cases drop from the mass of legal precedent, then no act of Congress, nor any other action, shall restore its status as precedent – unless by a super-majority of two-thirds of both houses in Congress.  For cases of the classification(s) where the jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court has been removed and subsequently restored, all federal courts begin to build case precedent afresh — except for what antedates the precedent cutoff date, and for any post-precedent cutoff date time frames demarcated for retention or designated for exemption as per section 4:3. 

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ther avenues.  In order to sharpen Congress’ focus on impeachment by eliminating the option of court packing, henceforth the voting membership of the U.S. Supreme Court shall never exceed nine.  To augment Article II, section 4 of the Constitution, we the people hereby specify offenses particular to usurpatious judges.  Here, criminal prosecution and / or articles of impeachment may take one or more of three forms — (1) court decisions which disregard the Ninth or Tenth Amendments to the Constitution; (2) rulings which go beyond the jurisdictional confines of the Judicial Branch, including the constraints in section 4:8-9; (3) failure to honor the precedent cutoff as per section 4:2-3, 5.  For conviction in the Senate, either of the aforesaid forms for articles of impeachment shall require a constitutional majority (over 50 percent of senatorial membership). 

A joint Senate-House committee shall be established to advise Congress on how to exercise with prudence the foregoing authority over the Federal Judiciary.

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onstraints on Federal Judges and Justices.  In court cases disputed on constitutional grounds, the top three considerations that shall govern decisions shall be as follows in order of priority:  First, the written Constitution; second, the intent of the Framers and Amenders, as best verifiable; and, third, the standing federal precedent deriving from decisions on the subject, with the most recent taking priority.  Precedents laid down by foreign governments or courts shall have no standing or relevance in interpreting the U.S. Constitution.

Because the job description of any judge, local, state or federal, includes defending the supreme Law of the Land (U.S. Constitution, article VI), every Justice or Judge in the United States shall annually take the following oath:  “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) to give priority to the U.S. Constitution as written and amended under Article V of the Constitution, rather than as reinterpreted later in courtrooms.  I will oppose legislation from the bench as contrary to honesty and in violation of my judicial duty.  So help me God.” (or: “So be it, on my honor.”)

 

 Section Five:  Restoring the First Article and Second Amendment

Declarations of War:  Declaring war as per Article I, section 8, of this Constitution, allows the Legislative Branch to specify the target of a declaration and to demarcate a time frame.  Unless Congress issues a formal declaration of war, both the President as Commander-in-Chief and the civilian military chief (currently the Secretary of Defense, formerly termed “Secretary of War”) are hereby forbidden to commit the armed forces of the United States to military combat or occupation for more than a fortnight.  Without a declaration of war, any military combat or occupation beyond fourteen days requires a supermajority (two-thirds of those present and voting) in each house of Congress.  Each such extension expires automatically at noon on the fourteenth day of the subsequent Congress.  Violation of this sub-section shall be an impeachable offense particular to the President, and also to the Secretary of Defense, requiring a constitutional majority (over 50 percent of the membership), for conviction in the Senate.

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econd Amendment.  Under “the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” a U.S. citizen is entitled to do so within any of the United States for sporting purposes and for self-defense.  Because Article I, section 8, puts the militia or national guard under jurisdiction of State government, it shall be the prerogative of each State – not the Federal government – to demarcate, within the following parameters, the level of potency in weaponry that citizens may keep and bear within the respective State.

Lower Parameter for State laws:  No State may regulate so rigorously the supply or possession of firearms as to exclude the following from the aegis of the Second Amendment: revolvers, semi-automatic (S-A) pistols, S-A rifles and S-A shotguns, as well as firearms of lesser potency.  Nor may a State legislate so as to deprive law-abiding pedestrians, motorists, or householders of the right to armed self-defense.

The upper parameter for potency of firearms that citizens are entitled to keep and bear shall be the weaponry which one militiaman or national guardsmen would typically carry unaided during combat on a march of five miles.  In the absence of promulgated State (or territorial) legislation to the contrary, Second Amendment rights default to the upper parameter.

Counties and municipalities are governed by the parameters that prevail in the respective state.  Government at all levels shall resist efforts, domestic or foreign, to deny or abridge the supply of arms (or attendant ammunition) whose possession is protected under the Second Amendment and this section.

 

 Section Six:  Provisional Government for Transition

 

Ratification by simple majority (fifty percent plus one of delegates present and voting) within the ratifying Conventions of three-fourths of the States in the Union shall be sufficient for the incorporation of the constellation amendment into the Constitution of the United States. All members of the State ratifying assembly who cast the decisive vote in favor of ratification shall caucus as often as necessary to elect a citizen of that State as a Cincinnatus, and to maintain an alternate in case the State loses its Cincinnatus to death, or retirement.  Neither incumbent State officials nor members of the aforesaid caucus shall be eligible for the office of Cincinnatus.  The duties of a Cincinnatus shall consist of representing his or her State in a Transitional Assembly of Cincinnati (TAsC) consisting of the assembled Cincinnati from the various ratifying states. Until the reconstituted Federal government convenes and the separation of powers is restored, the TAsC shall command all executive, legislative and judicial powers of government in the United States.

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mmediately upon ratification of this arch-amendment by the requisite number of states, the U.S. House of Representatives shall dissolve; and the opening session of the TAsC shall mark the end of the terms of the President and Vice-President of the United States.  In addition, seven at large Cincinnati — of which no less than four shall be U.S. military personnel — are to be appointed by the TAsC itself.  If the TAsC retires a member elected by his State, or the seat is otherwise vacated, his alternate assumes the post.  The Cincinnati themselves determine the quorum for the TAsC. 

Each month let the Cincinnati elect a president of the TAsC.  In spearheading the counterrevolution, let them act in the spirit of King Hezekiah the reformer, 2 Kings 18-20; and may they exercise power in the tradition of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who held the constitutional office of dictator with advantage and honor to the republic of Rome.

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lections & status of the old regime: Meanwhile Federal elections shall proceed according to the timetable in section one of this arch-amendment.  While serving simultaneous to the TAsC, the U.S. Supreme Court and lesser Federal courts, and the U.S. Senate, shall meet solely at locations and on schedules set by the TAsC.  Newly elected U.S. Representatives shall pursue only the ombudsmen duties designated above in section one.  To reform the Judicial Branch – federal, state or local ­– the TAsC may retire incumbents from the bench and fill vacancies.

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estoration: At noon on the third day in January, the same day that section 1:11 of this Amendment promotes the ombudsmen to the position of U.S. Congressmen, the Cincinnati shall immediately become private citizens, and the TAsC pass like earlier regimes to the confines of history.  By way of transition to a regular schedule, a President and Vice-President elected simultaneously with the newest class of Ombudsmen shall be inaugurated to special abbreviated terms that last until January 20th three years, 2½ weeks hence.  Retirement of the Cincinnati shall mark restoration to authority of officials in the three separate branches of the Federal government – Executive, Legislative and Judicial.  But no ex-bureaucrats or ex-judges / Justices, who lost their jobs under the TAsC, may sue for restoration to their posts.

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o ex-Cincinnatus may hold civilian office in the Federal government until the expiration of one post-restoration U.S. Congress.  Provided they bow dutifully to the restoration and its timetable as herein provided, all ex-Cincinnati hold immunity from interrogation, extradition, indictment, or punishment because of reforms carried out during their incumbency.  Nor shall post-restoration courts at any level – Federal, State, local, or international – have jurisdiction over acts of insurrection favoring this arch-amendment that took place prior to election of the TAsC.

 

ECONOMIC PREAMBLE [for sections seven through nine]:  The right to earn and purchase private property, including home ownership, is based in the laws of nature and nature’s God.  In possessing property, however, no responsible citizen disregards the common good or engages in reckless stewardship over creation.

Citizens will be more inclined to conserve nature carefully when public morale and self-esteem are high.  Morale and human happiness ebb when trade or technology renders minds and hands redundant.  But the individual is more happy, sturdy of character, and responsible when, in preference to public assistance, his livelihood is earned.

 

 Section Seven:  To Generate Jobs

 

Prefatory.  We the people require of the American economy that it afford able-bodied citizens the opportunity to make a living by working.  We enforce this earning opportunity not by legislating job security or guaranteeing anyone a place, but by making jobs plentiful enough to match the will to work.  In order to secure a plenitude of jobs and extinguish involuntary unemployment in the United States, two economic approaches (not to exclude others) are hereby authorized.

First, to the extent that gainful employment becomes a permanently scarce commodity in the economy, Congress may provide for a more equal distribution of hours by reducing the duration of the workweek, workmonth, or workyear.  Congress may legislate such reductions throughout the marketplace or in stipulated sectors thereof.

Second, unlike the above procedures which would share a limited amount of earning opportunity among more members of the labor force, the rest of this section aims to increase the total amount of work in demand, by expanding the labor market structurally.  The latter approach shall take precedence over section 7:2, because the goal is to maintain the option of full-time work for all, rather than merely to reapportion a decline in earning opportunities, by reducing the labor force to part-time.  However in reducing the labor force from overtime to full-time, i.e. down to forty hours per week, Congress may prioritize work reductions at the outset.

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irect creation of jobs (spending).  To implement section 7:3, Congress is obliged to generate full time jobs in numbers matching the amount of involuntary unemployment which the President of the United States may target in March — unless before the end of April both houses of Congress agree in specifying another target.  This March/April target applies to the next fiscal year and is linked to a program of Private Enterprise Projects (PEP).

PEP consists of Federally financed domestic work projects which are labor intensive and are conducted through contracts with private firms.  The purpose of PEP is twofold: [1] to generate work for workers, who [2] accomplish useful public projects within U.S. borders.  The role of Congress is to report said problems, focus PEP accordingly, and allocate sufficient revenues.

Upon issuance of a March/April jobs target Congress outlines the kind and specifies the quantity of the fiscal year's expenditures on PEP.  Thereby Congress will set the general policy within which the States shall decide the particulars.  The proportions whereby funds for PEP are distributed annually among the States is final, in that the proportions themselves are not subject to litigation.

To accept or reject its share of PEP funds is a State's option.  But once it accepts the funds, the State shall pay the overhead and administrative costs solely from intrastate revenue sources.  The State is responsible to detail the features of PEP projects, decide exact project locations, let contracts, oversee project performance, and annually report the results to Congress and the President.

Every Federal dollar for PEP which a State spends, it shall pay to privately owned U.S. corporations or businesses, under the contract system, after inviting competitive public bids.  In deciding between bidders a State shall prefer firms on the basis of cost effectiveness and quality workmanship, not labor intensity.  To promote labor intensive activity let States and the Congress be selective in designating project type, meanwhile respecting the competence of firms to choose their methods.

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ndirect creation of jobs (taxing).  Federal funding of PEP shall derive exclusively from a jobs levy, a tax levied by Congress on domestic retail sales of goods and services – imports as well as American makes.  The tax rate for the jobs levy shall be graduated from zero percent for the most labor using, up to higher percentages of retail price on sales in the most labor saving economic sectors.  However, no federal sales tax of any kind shall apply to staple food items sold in grocery stores.  The maximum allowable tax rate under this section is a "tithe to workers" of ten percent.

In order to encourage interproduct consumption patterns that expand labor intensive sectors of the economy, the tax rate for the jobs levy shall be uniform for all brands or trademarks of a particular product category – imports as well as American makes – which are sold in this country.  The tax rate shall be graduated according to the input ratio of capital to labor, both inputs being calculated with respect to average or typical production for particular categories of goods and services sold in the United States.

To promote interbrand consumption that encourages labor intensive technologies, the same agency that Congress assigns jurisdiction over the jobs levy shall, as Congress provides by law, issue jobs levy tax credits to sellers, including importers, in proportion as the goods or services they sell in the U.S. retail market exhibit more or less labor intensity than the benchmark brand.  The benchmark brand is the product of a particular trademark whose production exhibits the most practically verifiable input ratio of capital to labor among equivalent commodities sold in this country.  Capital is calculated at replacement value, and labor by payroll expenditures.

Jobs levy revenues not expended on PEP shall go into a special holding fund, to be drawn upon solely and exclusively for PEP programs in future.

Apart from the jobs levy, neither this Constitution, nor any treaty or international protocol, shall prevent Congress from granting tax preference to fair trade practices vis-à-vis free trade, nor stop Congress from levying a tariff against outsourcing.

 

 Section Eight:  National Sovereignty & Ecology 

Preeminence of the Constitution:  Being subordinate only to God, the U.S. Constitution supersedes any international laws, treaties or protocols insofar as they pertain to the United States.

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reaties.  No international organization may deprive the American people of their authority to make sovereign decisions through their elected representatives.  Thus, no international arrangement shall be legally binding (as distinguished from morally obligatory) that requires the payment of American monies to foreign entities.  Nor shall the U.S. government shirk, by treaty or otherwise, our duty to exercise good stewardship over the natural bounty bequeathed to this continent from time immemorial.

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cology:  Under the laws of nature and nature’s God we the people of the United States have the right to make international trade decisions in ways that our elected representatives judge to be environmentally responsible.  Domestically, the people have an inherent right, via their elected officials, (as distinguished from appointees) to deter irresponsible use of a domicile (a fixed and permanent home) by means of regulations enacted by elected State and local governments.  The sole Federal role shall be informational assistance provided to localities to assist in the collection of revenues, oversight to protect the property owner against regulation that is arbitrary, and against local and State legislation that violates the fundamental right to own, develop and defend one’s domicile.

In addition, we the people (not developers) reserve the right to access wilderness public lands via dirt roads that motorized vehicles may responsibly share with hikers, horses and wildlife.  The Congress shall have power to enforce this right of access by appropriate legislation.

 

 

 Section Nine:  Property Taxation & Regulation

General principles: Property taxes have historically been the primary source of revenue for local governments.  In proportion as the property tax assessor is local and democratic, the people will be more able and effectual in resisting oppressive taxation.  Accordingly neither the Federal government nor State government may impose taxes on real estate.  Property taxes on real estate may, however, be levied by counties and other localities, provided:

·         (1) the taxes are collected under the jurisdiction of an assessor democratically elected by citizen-residents of the general area to which the assessor’s authority applies,

·         (2) no more than three candidates for assessor shall appear on the final ballot, each nominated by citizens whose domiciles are subject to the property tax; 

·         (3) property tax levies get approved by a majority of the respective non-exempt taxpayers, i.e. those who do pay taxes on real estate as per section 9: 4-7;

·         (4) assessment of productive agricultural lands and associated farm equipment is minimized to reflect the fact that production of food is a necessity of life; and

·         (5) productive family farm land is assessed at no more than half the rate for corporate agriculture.

 

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onstitutional protections for domiciles (homes on one-tenth acre):  The right to own property has prerogatives and implications that forbid government to expropriate homes or other private property for private use – Kelo v. New London (23 June 2005) being hereby nullified.  Nor does government defer to the right to own property when it levies rents against homeowners under the pseudonym, property tax.  Henceforth a unit with 1452 square feet of floor space per householder / family is property tax exempt; also the most valued 2904 square feet (1/15 acre, measured in strips no narrower than 15 feet) of green zone, i.e. contiguous unoccupied land.  The non-exempt remainder of the domiciliary estate is any property in excess of the exemption for floor space, or for green space.  The excess floor space or land may be taxed in accordance with section 9:1.

Though a householder and his or her immediate family be in possession of numerous residences, the family has but one tax-exempt domicile — divorce or separation notwithstanding, until none of the original claimants own the same home — lest additional exemptions favor dissolution of families.

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xemptions for rental units:  For each rental to a householder / family, the respective landlord may claim property tax exemptions according to the following dimensions: floor space per unit up to 1452 square feet.  Also tax exempt is a contiguous, unoccupied, non-commercial green zone totaling triple the square footage of the building's footprint (or vertical shadow).  Landlords may, however, claim the tax exemption only on real estate used primarily and actively for domiciles at prevailing rates for rentals.  Moreover, the landlord claims no tax-exempt status for renters whose property-tax-exempt domicile is at another address, or for a commercial firm whose owners abide at another address — unless the firm uses the property exclusively for domiciliary rentals.  Multiple owner or condominium arrangements shall be treated for property tax purposes as rentals.

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reen zones:  No level of government may regulate development of the green zones indicated in section 9:2 and 9:4, except as permitted by an act of Congress that expires automatically on the forth day of the July following a Presidential election.  Nor may any level of government revoke title on a property tax exempt domicile, or require its sale, in order to procure overdue property taxes.

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omeowners whose domiciliary status pre-dates the ratification of this Amendment are “grandfathered in,” being allowed 5808 square feet (2/15 acre) as the maximum for their green zone – double the dimensions indicated in section 9:2.  When the property sells or passes on to heirs, such grandfathering becomes null and void, so that double-the-green-zone claims will phase out by attrition.

     Implementation:  Let Congress delineate a timetable for transition to property tax exemption.  The time frame for transition shall overlap by no more than three years (or by exactly three years if Congress fails to act) the ten-year US census following ratification of this arch-amendment, so as to assist in monitoring the progression statistically, and give counties / localities time to adjust.

 

  CULTURAL PREAMBLE [for sections ten through twelve]:  Civil rights and freedom necessitate a sense of community, duty and responsibility.  When forces erode these ethics society is the victim; and disfigurement of society diminishes genuine liberty and quality of life for the individual.

 

 Section  Ten:  Life and Family

Sanctity of human life:  In 1776 the Declaration of Independence designated life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as inalienable rights that government dare not seek to destroy.  The first of these rights, human life, is sacred from conception to natural death.  Under this Constitution, therefore, abortion and active euthanasia are neither rights nor civil liberties, but criminal acts.

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nforcement:  Penalization for these crimes within U.S. borders shall be according to the laws of the State or territory in which the abortion or euthanasia takes place; and as regards American citizens outside U.S. borders according to the laws of the country where the abortion or euthanasia occurs.  But no State or territory of the United States may finance abortions, or procurement thereof, from taxation or other public revenues.

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amily:   The family is the first and fundamental unit of American society.  It consists of a male husband, a female wife, and any children that the married couple conceives or adopts.  Such a family has natural prerogatives.

For sodomy, however, no special right or liberty proceeds from this Constitution.  Nor do nature, or the dictates of political wisdom, or the imperative of defending marriage afford favor to sodomitic activity.  For the purposes of this section sodomy is defined as a sexually active relationship, practicing and ongoing, between same-sex partners.

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nforcement:  No laws, federal, State or local, may finance or otherwise countenance unions that are sodomitic.  In particular, adoption of children by same-sex partners engaged in sodomy is hereby forbidden.  Sodomy is moral disorder, and sexually disordered morals magnify the risk of child abuse, thus imperiling the innocence of youth and the future of society.

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loning: As perverting the sanctity of sex is uncivilized and unworthy of constitutional protections, so perverting the process of human conception warrants negation in any civilization, however technocratic.  To clone or attempt to clone a human being is hereby banned throughout the United States and its possessions.  Also prohibited is the importation (immigration) of a “human” clone at any stage of development.

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nforcement:  Congress shall have power to enforce the forgoing provisions of section ten by appropriate legislation. 

            Grandfathering:  Insofar as any federal, state or local law that predates ratification is rendered null and void, let there be no reciprocity against particular arrangements previously contracted under such a law, unless and until rendered retroactive by the jurisdiction which originally enacted the law.

 

 Section Eleven:  Detoxifying the Culture

Human Dignity.  As regards the saturation of society with pornography, experience and reason identify it as a clear and present danger to public morality, the family structure, and positive community feeling.  We the people have the right to counter the commerce in lewdness which undermines human dignity and degrades the culture in which we must live.  To end mass marketing of pornography, and to defend our standing not as mere objects of animal desire but as human beings with high spiritual dignity, we institute the elective office of Cultural Laundress.

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he Cultural Laundress is elected by the same constituency as the President and the vice-president, in recognition of the enormous increase in political power that has accrued to the media by virtue of their newfound leverage over public opinion and mores.  An incumbent Cultural Laundress is henceforth an ex-officio, non-voting member of the U.S. Supreme Court, due the same annual salary and equal privileges on the bench and in chambers as the voting Justices.  As Cultural Laundress, "Madam CuL" has a two year term, and no individual may serve more than four years in any span of eight years.  The nation's voters shall elect the Cultural Laundress from five candidates as follows.

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lections:  During May of every odd numbered year, each State legislator and any member of the LAB (see section 3:3) is entitled to nominate for the office of Cultural Laundress one female American citizen at least 35 years of age.  From the twelve women most often nominated, who are eligible and willing to stand, the U.S. Senate shall proceed to two secret ballots, with each Senator entitled to cast one vote per ballot.  The top two vote-getters on the first ballot and the top three on the second ballot shall be the five candidates.  This senatorial balloting takes place at least one month before the weekend in August of House primary elections (see section 1:3) at which primary the voters elect also the Cultural Laundress.  But in the absence of a majority for any one of the five candidates in the August primary, a runoff between the two top candidates takes place in October, simultaneous with House general elections.

The order of candidates on the ballot coincides with their vote total in the Senate.  Madam CuL's term of office is congruent with the biennium of the congressional House term.

After ratification of this Amendment, a special election of a Cultural Laundress shall correspond to the special elections and terms for the initial path of service (see section 6: 5-6).  Unscheduled vacancies in the office of Cultural Laundress shall be filled through nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate.

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owers of the office.  The authority of Madam CuL involves her power of action by judicial injunction.  A CuL injunction is a ban applicable solely and exclusively to the export from the United States, or the importation, dissemination or broadcast within or into the United States, of sexually licentious or pornographic public phenomena (hereafter abbreviated SLOPPP). 

Statutory restrictions pertaining to sexual phenomena under titles other than SLOPPP are enforceable by subsequent punishment, not prior restraint, and legislators must contrive a clear definition of the thing proscribed. 

Under the title of SLOPPP, however, a phenomenon remains lawful until singled out by CuL injunction.  Hence no punishment accrues to violators of legal formulas or abstract definitions, because SLOPPP consists of specific instances designated by judicial discretion on the basis of case by case inspections.  Here contemporary community standards rule by proxy, the elected agent of the American community being the incumbent Cultural Laundress.  Her ad hoc value judgment that a particular sexual phenomenon qualifies as SLOPPP is for legal purposes synonymous with community standards as manifested in the people's biennial choice between candidates for Cultural Laundress.

Federal, State and local authorities may enforce CuL injunctions against SLOPPP in one or both of two ways:  First, by interrupting transmission or by seizing, consistently with the Fourth Amendment, the property which continues to circulate publicly after Madam CuL enjoins its dissemination; second by criminal sanctions against sellers, donors, or producers guilty of such post-injunction dissemination.  In criminal cases the accused is always entitled to a jury trial as to whether in fact he violated the CuL injunction after its proper promulgation.

The promulgation of a CuL injunction shall consist of a notice posted physically and/or electronically at a readily accessible site.  To violate a CuL injunction against SLOPPP is a felony punishable as provided by Federal law for cases of international and interstate dissemination, and a crime punishable as provided by State or local law for intrastate dissemination.

The incumbent Cultural Laundress may at her discretion deputize unpaid volunteers who investigate and inform her on cases of SLOPPP which may be too numerous or too distant for her personal inspection.  Madam CuL's paid deputies may be of three types: [a] municipal or county agents deputized and financed at the local level, [b] State agents deputized and financed at the State level who investigate intrastate dissemination of SLOPPP, and [c] Federal deputies appointed by the Cultural Laundress and financed by congressional appropriation; Madam CuL's Federal deputies investigate interstate and international dissemination.

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hecks.  To maintain a sure avenue for political and intellectual dissent, a work displaying only the spoken or written word, as distinguished from pictorial representations, shall never qualify as SLOPPP – except insofar as it is audible or visible to minors and puts their morals at risk.  The Cultural Laundress has authority to ban an entire work on the basis of any SLOPPP it does contain, for example an entire issue of a magazine because of one or more pictures, or a television series on account of occasional episodes.

CuL injunctions against SLOPPP are binding immediately upon promulgation and until withdrawn by Madam CuL; or until stayed or overridden by the U.S. Supreme Court, acting on its own or a plaintiff's initiative, and for published cause linked by literal meaning to written statutes or to the Constitution as written.  The Cultural Laundress alone, or the U.S. Supreme Court as a body, are the sole authorities who may stay or cancel CuL injunctions.

Other checks and restraints are inherent in the people before they elect Madam CuL, and in the subsequent option not to reelect the incumbent.  Moreover, Congress has power to impeach her; also Federal, State or local legislation may cut or omit funding for her staff and may reduce statutory penalties for convicted violators of CuL injunctions.  The trial jury too can acquit the defendant charged with violation of a CuL injunction.

 Section Twelve:  Religion in Public Life 

Preface:  With respect to church / state relations, the rationale for boundaries is not to sever spiritual or moral principle from public affairs, but rather to facilitate social peace and to prevent ecclesiastical control in any principal department of the polity.  In public education and in the peer group subcultures that flourish there, schoolchildren are entitled to have misleading or wanton influences checked — i.e. openly contradicted by Judeo-Christian wisdom and its summons to morality.  We the people urge posterity to embrace these norms as propitious to social tranquility and solicitous of Divine Providence.

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ible reading.  Henceforth public school teachers are free to cite the wisdom and virtues of the Bible in relation to the curriculums and problems of the classroom.  At the secondary level (grades 6-12) each public school teacher, or the pupil he designates from volunteers, is free to read, on his own initiative and to his own classes, out of a convenient version of the Old or New Testament  —  or from the Revised Standard Version Common Bible if the choice of versions is in dispute.  The respective teacher decides the occasions and the verses, if any; but in duration let Bible reading and any comments thereon be no more than twelve minutes per day per teacher at the secondary level.  For part-time teachers, the time is reduced proportionately.  No time is allotted for such reading routines at the elementary level where, however, the teacher may briefly quote the Bible when occasioned by questions of deportment or relevance to their ongoing coursework.

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osting.  Furthermore, public school teachers in all grades may post in the classroom the Ten Commandments and up to ten verses from other Biblical passages.  In the event of dispute over versions, the Ten Commandments shall be either verbatim from Exodus, chapter 20, or posted simultaneously in Protestant, Catholic and Jewish versions.  Moreover, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to forbid the display of the Ten Commandments on public property.

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rovisos.  Like non-disruptive dissent from flag ceremonies, so also when Bible reading or classroom prayer is in progress: let pupils who dissent practice silent non-participation.  That such dissent be as inconspicuous as possible, the bodily posture encouraged for the class collectively shall be no more overtly devotional than standing respectfully.

Concerning dissenting adults in the school community, decentralized decision making can sometimes help areas blessed with concord to maintain what polarized communities might prefer to avoid.  Here decentralization refers to parents, teacher, principal, the elected school board, and its constituents.

Residents of the school district may exercise dissent by petitioning the respective principal and/or the elected school board.  Such petitions shall have official standing if they specify the religious practices deemed objectionable.  In response the elected school board may eliminate entirely or disallow in part the public school exercises authorized in this section — excepting (a) a moment of silence and (b) the aforementioned posting of the Ten Commandments.  Any such intervention lapses automatically at the end of the academic year, unless subsequently renewed for another academic year by majority vote of the school board.  In addition, the principal may at his discretion item-veto religious exercises (a and b above excepted) in a particular teacher's class.  Such a principal-initiated veto shall lapse, however, by the next school board meeting unless extended by majority vote of the board.

Patterns of religious exercises in public schools other than specified in section twelve are subject to the principal's advance permission, to judicial review for compatibility with the national and State constitutions, and to veto by the respective elected school board.  But no court, school principal, school board or other public authority may mandate religious exercises of any kind in public schools, or specify their form.  The general rule is decentralization to the classroom.

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rivate and parochial schools.  State or local government may, if in accordance with the respective State constitution, make monetary arrangements with religious and / or secular private schools, or provide monetary assistance to citizens who pay tuition there.  Such appropriations shall have the same general purpose as for public schools.  Federal monies may not fund non-public schools except for ancillary services like transportation and special education, which are auxiliaries to the regular curriculum. 

The primary federal role shall be to make sure that State and local government moneys are never employed as purse strings to undermine or modify a school's moral and religious character.  Hereafter it shall be a high crime to withhold, or threaten to withhold, government funds as a lever to modify the moral standards required of Christian, Jewish or Islamic school personnel, or in order to regulate school-based religious exercises based on the Bible, the Koran, or the Mormon scriptures. 

P

arental right to home-school in lieu of public, private or parochial schooling shall not be denied or abridged.

 

P

rayer in Public Schools: Misconceptions of equity; or exaggerated perceptions of the offendibility of religious minorities; or resolve to secularize society using the foregoing as pretexts; can sometimes lead school authorities to disallow even voluntary prayer, or to prescribe certain prayers in watered down versions.  Against such tendencies we the people authorize voluntary prayer in the public (government) schools, grades K-12 and up; provided, however, that in-class prayer exercises are not introduced by officials at the administrative level, but are initiated in the classroom by the respective teacher.

The kinds of such prayer exercises that we specifically unfetter are three: (A) standing in silent prayer; (B) prayers recited solo by the teacher or a student volunteer with classmates at liberty to join in the amen; and (C) for group recitation, any one or combination of paragraphs 14 to 20 of this section.  We the people mandate that all participation in public school prayer be voluntary and non-compulsory, for the child cannot lift mind and heart to God otherwise than by free will.

Furthermore, to check unforeseeable movements of the future that would again work to sheath the sword of the spirit in education or elsewhere, we the people acting apart from the ordinary hierarchy of state do specify a substantive and undiluted form of Judeo-Christian prayer that is equally Constitutional in public places as this very Constitution.  Any quantity of the seven paragraphs below (without excluding other prayers) we authorize for voluntary and optional use on public property, to be limited only by the necessities of peace and public order.

 

Benediction to the Constellation Amendment:

  The Lord is our defense.

The holy One of Israel is our King.

Your Ten Commandments, O God, help us to keep. 

+ Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

+ Enlighten our age to this, O Lord, that in your Son Jesus Christ is the secret of true progress.

+ For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.

 

Amen.

_________

 

The Written U.S. Constitution

From the Constitutional Convention of 1787 through the 27th Amendment, 1992 

Preamble.  We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

C O N S T I T U T I O N

 

ARTICLE I

 

     Section 1.   All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

 

     Section 2.  The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the elector in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

            Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, [which shall be determined by adding the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.] The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.  The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

 

     Section 3.  The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes.  The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; [and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of the President of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.  When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation.  When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgement and punishment, according to law.

 

     Section 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be [on the first Monday in December,] unless they by law appoint a different day.

    

Section 5.  Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide. 

C O N S T I T U T I O N

Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 

Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

 

     Section 6.  The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.  They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

 

     Section 7.  All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the president of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it.  If after such reconsideration, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law.  But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively.  If any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the president of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

 

     Section 8.  Powers of Congress:    The Congress shall have Power,

To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide  for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States:

To borrow money on the credit of the United States:

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes:

To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States: 5.        

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures:

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States:

To establish post-offices and post-roads:

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries:

To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court:

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations:

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water:

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years:

To provide and maintain a navy:

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces:

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions:

To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress:

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings: And,

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

 

     Section 9.  The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importations, not exceeding 10 dollars for each person.

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

C O N S T I T U T I O N

No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.  

[No capitation, or other direct tax shall be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or from one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.

No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States:  And no person holding any office or profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

 

     Section 10  No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress.

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in a war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.

 

 

ARTICLE II

 

     Section 1.  The Executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.  He shall hold office during the term of four years, and together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows

Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President.  But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

 

     Section 2.  The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have the power to fill up all vacancies that may may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session.

     Section 3.   He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he may receive ambassadors, and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

C O N S T I T U T I O N

 

     Section 4.   The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

 

Article III

 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

 

Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; – to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; – to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; – to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; – to controversies between two or more states; – between a state and citizens of another state; – between citizens of different states; – between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states,

citizens or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

 

Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

 

Article IV

 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

 

Section 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.

 

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.

No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

 

Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.

 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

 

C O N S T I T U T I O N

Article V

 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

 

Article VI

 

All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

 

Article VII

 

The ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

 

 

AMENDMENTS (1791-1992)

 

     The Bill of Rights:  The ten original Amendments, passed by Congress September 25, 1789.  Ratified December 15, 1791.

 

AMENDMENT I

   Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

AMENDMENT II

   A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

 

AMENDMENT III

   No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

 

AMENDMENT IV

   The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 

AMENDMENT V

   No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

 

AMENDMENT VI

C O N S T I T U T I O N

   In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

 

AMENDMENT VII

   In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

 

AMENDMENT VIII

   Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

 

AMENDMENT IX

   The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

 

AMENDMENT X

   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.

 

AMENDMENT XI

    The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.

 

 

AMENDMENT XII

   The Electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves;  they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; - The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.   But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to  a choice.  And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, [before the fourth day of March next following,] <<Altered by 20th Amendment>> then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.  The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such numbers be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.  But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

 

AMENDMENT XIII

     Section 1.   Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

 

     Section 2.   Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

AMENDMENT XIV

     Section 1.   All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.  No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

 

C O N S T I T U T I O N

     Section 2.   Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.  But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

 

     Section 3.   No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.  But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

 

     Section 4.   The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.  But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

 

     Section 5.   The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

 

AMENDMENT XV

     Section 1.   The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

 

     Section 2.   The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

AMENDMENT XVI

   The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever sources derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

 

AMENDMENT XVII (1913)

   The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.  The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislatures.   When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the Legislature of any State may empower the Executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct.

   This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

 

AMENDMENT XVIII (1917)

   After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

   The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

   This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

 

AMENDMENT XIX (1920)

   The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

   Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

AMENDMENT XX (1933)

   The terms of the President and the Vice-President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

     Section 2.   The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

C O N S T I T U T I O N

     Section 3.   If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice-President elect shall become President.  If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice-President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice-President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice-President shall have qualified.

     Section 4.   The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice-President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

     Section 5.   Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article (October 1933).

     Section 6.   This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

 

AMENDMENT XXI (1933)

     Section 1.   The Eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

     Section 2.   The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

     Section 3.   This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

 

AMENDMENT XXII (1951)

   No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more that two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more that once.

   But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

   This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

 

AMENDMENT XXIII (1961)

     Section 1.   The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:

   A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and preform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

     Section 2.   The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

AMENDMENT XXIV (1964)

Section 1.   The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or any other tax.

     Section 2.   Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

AMENDMENT XXV (1967)

     Section 1.   In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

     Section 2.   Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take the office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both houses of Congress.

     Section 3.   Whenever the President transmits to the President Pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

     Section 4.   Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits to the President Pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

C O N S T I T U T I O N

   Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President Pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits within four days to the President Pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.  Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session.  If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

 

AMENDMENT XXVI (1971)

     Section 1.   The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.

     Section 2.   The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

 

AMENDMENT XXVII (1992)

     No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Endnotes