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Article Archives (11-2-2004)
Amending the Constitution to extend federal legislative power to the people
In my Joe Trippi article dated 10-27-2004, I proposed a goal for the grass-roots, wired revolution not of electing progressive presidents but, rather, passing political power directly to the people through a constitutional amendment authorizing a federal ballot initiate process. Obviously, some meat is required upon those "constitutional amendment" bones. Let's recap first. If I correctly understand the vision of Joe Trippi for his revolution (see "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"), the wired and energized citizenry will unite behind candidates of their choosing as opposed to those fed to them by the established political parties (i.e., the elephants and the donkeys). I agree that this would be a grand improvement over the current system but one fundamentally flawed: we would still be required to rely upon a stranger pulled out of the woods to go to Washington and execute the will of the people. "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton. The power and money of Washington can corrupt the purest of souls and, unfortunately, there are no pure souls in our capital. Thus, we cannot trust strangers to go to Washington to faithfully represent the interests of the people. What's the answer? Give the citizens of the United States the power to enact federal legislation directly through ballot initiate.
The Mechanics of Amending the Constitution
The mechanism for Amending the U.S. Constitution is found in Article V. There are basically two methods for passage of a constitutional amendment found in Article V. The first is for a bill containing the proposed amendment to pass both halves of the congress by a two-thirds majority in each. Thereafter, the amendment must be approved by three-fourths of the state legislatures (or state constitutional conventions). Please note that a proposed amendment is never voted on by the people of the state as a whole.
The second method is for two-thirds of the legislatures of the states to call for a Constitutional Convention, and for that convention to propose one or more amendments. Thereafter, the amendment(s) are, as before, sent to the states to be approved by three-fourths of the state legislatures (or state constitutional conventions). No amendment to the constitution has ever been passed via the second method.
Practicalities of the Situation
IMHO, no matter the level of grass root support for a federal ballot initiate procedure, Congress is never going to pass a proposed amendment by 2/3 rds majority that would significantly curtain its power. Thus, the only way to get what I propose done is via a Constitutional Convention called for by 2/3rds of the states or 34 states. This, to put it mildly, would be a massive undertaking but no great feat was ever achieved by thinking small.
Crafting the Amendment
Let me first present a propose system and then discuss the merits and issues:
- Proponent of a ballot initiative must collect signatures from citizens equal to 3% of the total number of votes in the immediately preceding presidential election and submit same to the Federal Election Commission; further, of that total, the proponent must submit a minimum of 25,000 signatures in 45 of the 50 states;
- Proponent must pay a filing fee of $500,000 (with this amount to be indexed for inflation);
- When sufficient signatures are certified by the Federal Election Commission, the proposed ballot initiative shall be placed upon the ballot in all states at the next scheduled congressional election; however, if the proposed ballot initiative and its required signatures is filed with the FEC less than 6 months prior to the next congressional election, it shall be heldover for two years for vote at the following congressional election;
- To become law, a federal ballot initiate must receive a supermajority of 55% of the popular vote of all citizens to cast a vote upon the measure.
- Any law passed by ballot initiate shall supersede any prior law of congress or law passed by ballot initiate.
- Congress may amend, but not completely repeal, any law passed by ballot initiate by act if said act of congress passes both house by a 3/4ths majority and is signed by the president.
In 2000, there were 105,405,100 votes cast. Therefore, to place a proposed law before the voters as a ballot initiative (in my proposal), the proponents would have to submit in excess of 3 million signatures from citizens to the FEC and pay a $500k filing fee. As laws passed by ballot initiate are not going to be vetted by a process of congressional hearings (as, for instance, the Patriot Act was not), I think it wise to set the bar for passage high. That is the reason for the 55% supermajority vote of all citizens for passage. The 6-month requirement is there to ensure a proper time frame for public debate of the proposed amendment before it goes to a vote. Also, as an escape hatch, if a law passed by ballot initiate turns out later to be unwise, congress is given the power to fix the deficiency in the law by a 3/4ths supermajority. Finally, if our goal is to return power directly to the citizens from the Congress, then I believe the amendment should be based upon the popular vote of citizens on the whole as opposed to any balkanized state system as we have in presidential elections.
JJR
11-2-2004
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