SECTION 7: The limit on the debt of the United States held by the public shall not be increased unless three-fifths of both Houses of Congress shall provide for such an increase by roll call vote.
SECTION 8: This Amendment shall take effect in the fourth fiscal year after its ratification.
Taxing
SECTION 1: Congress shall not collect more than 15 percent of a person’s annual income, from whatever source derived. “Person” shall include natural and legal persons.
SECTION 2: The deadline for filing federal income tax returns shall be the day before the date set for elections to federal office.
SECTION 3: Congress shall not collect tax on a decedent’s estate.
SECTION 4: Congress shall not institute a value-added tax or national sales tax or any other tax in kind or form.
SECTION 5: This Amendment shall take effect in the fourth fiscal year after its ratification.
An Amendment to Limit the Federal Bureaucracy
SECTION 1: All federal departments and agencies shall expire if said departments and agencies are not individually reauthorized in stand-alone reauthorization bills every three years by a majority vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
SECTION 2: All Executive Branch regulations exceeding an economic burden of $100 million, as determined jointly by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office, shall be submitted to a permanent Joint Committee of Congress, hereafter the Congressional Delegation Oversight Committee, for review and approval prior to their implementation.
SECTION 3: The Committee shall consist of seven members of the House of Representatives, four chosen by the Speaker and three chosen by the Minority Leader; and seven members of the Senate, four chosen by the Majority Leader and three chosen by the Minority Leader. No member shall serve on the Committee beyond a single three-year term.
SECTION 4: The Committee shall vote no later than six months from the date of the submission of the regulation to the Committee. The Committee shall make no change to the regulation, either approving or disapproving the regulation by majority vote as submitted.
SECTION 5: If the Committee does not act within six months from the date of the submission of the regulation to the Committee, the regulation shall be considered disapproved and must not be implemented by the Executive Branch.
An Amendment to Promote Free Enterprise
SECTION 1: Congress’s power to regulate Commerce is not a plenary grant of power to the federal government to regulate and control economic activity but a specific grant of power limited to preventing states from impeding commerce and trade between and among the several States.
SECTION 2: Congress’s power to regulate Commerce does not extend to activity within a state, whether or not it affects interstate commerce; nor does it extend to compelling an individual or entity to participate in commerce or trade.
An Amendment to Protect Private Property
SECTION 1: When any governmental entity acts not to secure a private property right against actions that injure property owners, but to take property for a public use from a property owner by actual seizure or through regulation, which taking results in a market value reduction of the property, interference with the use of the property, or a financial loss to the property owner exceeding $10,000, the government shall compensate fully said property owner for such losses.
An Amendment to Grant the States Authority to Directly Amend the Constitution
SECTION 1: The State Legislatures, whenever two-thirds shall deem it necessary, may adopt Amendments to the Constitution.
SECTION 2: Each State Legislature adopting said Amendments must adopt Amendments identical in subject and wording to the other State Legislatures.
SECTION 3: A six-year time limit is placed on the adoption of an Amendment, starting from the date said Amendment is adopted by the first State Legislature. Each State Legislature adopting said Amendment shall provide an exact copy of the adopted Amendment, along with an affidavit signed and dated by the Speaker of the State Legislature, to the Archivist of the United States within fifteen calendar days of its adoption.
SECTION 4: Upon adoption of an Amendment, a State Legislature may not rescind the Amendment or modify it during the six-year period in which the Amendment is under consideration by the several States’ Legislatures.
An Amendment to Grant the States Authority to Check Congress
SECTION 1: There shall be a minimum of thirty days between the engrossing of a bill or resolution, including amendments, and its final passage by both Houses of Congress. During the engrossment period, the bill or resolution shall be placed on the public record, and there shall be no changes to the final bill or resolution.
SECTION 2: SECTION 1 may be overridden by two-thirds vote of the members of each House of Congress.
SECTION 3: Upon three-fifths vote of the state legislatures, the States may override a federal statute.
SECTION 4: Upon three-fifths vote of the state legislatures, the States may override Executive Branch regulations exceeding an economic burden of $100 million after said regulations have been finally approved by the Congressional Delegation Oversight Committee [see An Amendment Establishing How the States May Amend the Constitution].
SECTION 5: The States’ override shall not be the subject of litigation or review in any Federal or State court, or oversight or interference by Congress or the President.
SECTION 6: The States’ override authority must be exercised no later than twenty-four months from the date the President has signed the statute into law, or the Congressional Delegation Oversight Committee has approved a final regulation, after which the States are prohibited from exercising the override.
An Amendment to Protect the Vote
SECTION 1: Citizens in every state, territory, and the District of Columbia shall produce valid photographic identification documents demonstrating evidence of their citizenship, issued by the state government for the state in which the voter resides, as a prerequisite for registering to vote and voting in any primary or general election for President, Vice President, and members of Congress.
SECTION 2: Provisions shall be made by the state legislatures to provide such citizenship-designated photographic identification documents at no cost to individuals unable to afford fees associated with acquiring such documents.
SECTION 3: Early voting in any general election for President, Vice President, and members of Congress shall not be held more than thirty calendar days prior to the national day of election except for active-duty military personnel, for whom early voting shall not commence more than forty-five calendar days prior to the national day of election.
SECTION 4: Where registration and/or voting is not in person but by mail, citizens must submit an approved citizen-designated photo identification and other reliable information to state election officials to register to vote and request ballots for voting, no later than forty-five calendar days before the primary or general elections for President, Vice President, or members of Congress. Registration forms and ballots must be returned and signed by the voter and must either be mailed or hand-delivered by the voter to state election officials. If delivered by a third party, the voter must provide written authorization for the person making the delivery and the third party must sign a statement certifying that he did not unduly influence the voter’s decisions.
SECTION 5: Electronic or other technology-based voting systems, for purposes of registering and voting in national elections, are proscribed unless a reliable identification and secure voting regimen is established by the state legislature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am blessed and grateful for the love and support of my wonderful family. They are my greatest inspiration and encouragement, and always have been.
Thank you to Eric Christensen, Richard Hutchison, Michael O’Neill, and Matthew Forys, my colleagues and friends, for their excellent insights and research assistance; Mitchell Ivers, my longtime editor, for his su
perb advice; and my publisher, Louise Burke, for her steadfast support.
I also want to thank my treasured radio audience and the untold numbers of my fellow citizens who are committed, in small ways and large, to the restoration of the grand American Republic. We live in perilous times and the challenges are daunting. Yet we find strength and courage in our common bond as Americans. This is our generation’s burden. We have our work cut out for us. But there is a way forward. The Constitution.
MARK R. LEVIN, nationally syndicated talk-radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation, is the author of Liberty and Tyranny, the 38-week New York Times bestseller that spent three months at #1 and sold more than one million copies; and the #1 New York Times bestseller Ameritopia. His books Men in Black and Rescuing Sprite were also New York Times and national bestsellers. He has worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser to several members of President Reagan’s cabinet. He holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University Law School. Follow Mark Levin on Twitter or visit www.marklevinshow.com.
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NOTES
1. Restoring the American Republic
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Henry Reeve, trans., Phillips Bradley, ed., vol. 1 (New York: Library of America, 2004), 319.
2. Ibid., 329.
3. “Obama: We are 5 days away from FUNDAMENTALLy [sic] transforming America,” uploaded Oct. 31, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cqN4NIEtOY (April 5, 2013).
4. Edward Felker, “Obama vows to be aggressive with regulation if Congress doesn’t act,” Washington Guardian, Energy Guardian, Feb. 13, 2013, http://www.washingtonguardian.com/one-tango (April 5, 2013).
5. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006), 277–78 (emphasis in original).
6. Ibid., 428.
7. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856).
8. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
9. Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944).
10. “Fiscal Year 2013, Historical Tables, Budget of the U.S. Government,” Office of Management and Budget, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/hist.pdf (March 17, 2013).
11. Ibid.
12. “CBO: Debt will be $7 trillion larger by 2023,” Daily Caller, Feb. 6, 2013, http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/06/cbo-debt-to-increase-7-trillion-by-2023/ (April 5, 2013).
13. “Alert 496: Alert GAAP-Based U.S. Budget Deficit—Actual 2012 Federal Budget Deficit Hit $6.9 Trillion,” American Business Analytics & Research LLC, Jan. 17, 2013, http://www.shadowstats.com/article/no-496-alert-gaap-based-us-budget-deficit (March 17, 2013).
14. Detlev Schlicter, “Bubble trouble: Is there an end to endless quantitative easing?” Feb. 22, 2013, http://detlevschlicter.com/2013/02/bubble-trouble-is-there-an-end-to-endless-quantitative-easing/ (April 5, 2013).
15. Editorial, “Mrs. Pelosi’s VAT—The Speaker floats a middle-class tax hike,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574457512007010416.html (March 17, 2013).
16. Elizabeth MacDonald, “Beware of Congress’s Threat to Tax 401Ks,” Fox Business, Oct. 31, 2008, http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2008/10/31/beware-congresss-threat-tax-ks (April 5, 2013).
17. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 113.
18. Madison, The Federalist, 75.
19. Ibid., 259.
20. Ibid., 267.
21. U.S. Constitution, Art. V.
22. James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), 33.
23. Ibid., 105.
24. Ibid., 649.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid., 610.
27. Madison, The Federalist, 246.
28. Robert G. Natelson, “The State-Application-and-Convention Method of Amending the Constitution: The Founding Era Vision,” 29 Thomas M. Cooley Law Review 9 (2011).
29. The state legislatures can recommend specific language or amendments, but cannot seek to impose them through the application process as Article V empowers the delegates to the convention to propose amendments, which the states subsequently consider for ratification. The applications from the states must also be similar in subject area to reasonably conclude that two-thirds of the states are calling for a convention to address the same matters. See ibid.
30. Madison, Notes on Debates, 649.
31. Hamilton, The Federalist, 486.
2. An Amendment to Establish Term Limits for Members of Congress
1. “Historical Elections, Election Stats, 2010 cycle,” Center for Responsive Politics, Opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/elec_stats.php?cycle=2010 (April 18, 2013).
2. “Historical Elections, Election Stats, 2008 cycle,” Center for Responsive Politics, Opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/elec_stats.php?cycle=2008 (April 18, 2013).
3. Ronald Rotunda, “A Commentary on the Constitutionality of Term Limits,” in The Politics and Law of Term Limits, Edward H. Crane and Roger Pilon, eds. (Washington, DC: Cato, 1994), 141.
4. Mark P. Petracca, “Restoring ‘The University in Rotation’: An Essay in Defense of Term Limitation,” in The Politics and Law of Term Limits, Edward H. Crane and Roger Pilon, eds. (Washington DC: Cato, 1994), 74.
5. Pennsylvania Constitution, Section 8—September 28, 1776, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa08.asp (April 18, 2013).
6. Pennsylvania Constitution, Section 19—September 28, 1776, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa08.asp (April 18, 2013).
7. Articles of Confederation, Art. V, cl. 2, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp (April 18, 2013).
8. James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), 52–53.
9. Petracca, “Restoring ‘The University in Rotation,’ ” 60.
10. Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787,” in Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 2nd ed., Thomas Jefferson Randolph, ed., vol. 2 (Boston: Gray & Bowen, 1830), http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16782/16782-h/16782-h.htm#link2H_4_0119 (April 18, 2013).
11. Jefferson, “Letter to Samuel Adams, February 26, 1800,” in Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16783/16783-h/16783-h.htm#link2H_4_0258 (April 18, 2013).
12. Petracca, “Restoring ‘The University in Rotation,’ ” 69–70.
13. U.S. Constitution, Twenty-Second Amendment.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875, Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 1st Congress, 1st Session, July 16, 1789 (Library of Congress), 668–71, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=001/llac001.db&recNum=335.
17. Ibid., 671–74, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=001/llac001.db&recNum=337.
18. Ida A. Brudnick, “Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables,” Congressional Research Service, Jan. 15, 2013, http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=‘*2%404P%5C%5B%3A%22%40%20%20
%0A (April 18, 2013).
19. “States with gubernatorial term limits,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/States_with_gubernatorial_term_limits (April 18, 2013).
20. Virginia Constitution, Art. V, Section 1.
21. “Utah Set to Repeal Term Limits,” National Conference of State Legislatures, March 26, 2003, http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/legisdata/utah-set-to-repeal-term-limits.aspx (April 18, 2013).
22. “The Term Limited States,” National Conference of State Legislatures, January 2013, http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/legisdata/chart-of-term-limits-states.aspx (April 18, 2013).
23. Madison, Notes of Debates, 371.
24. Frank Newport, “Congress Approval Stagnant at Low Level,” Gallup, Politics, March 11, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/161210/congress-approval-stagnant-low-level.aspx (April 18, 2013).
3. An Amendment to Restore the Senate
1. U.S. Constitution, Art. I, Section 3.
2. James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), 31.
3. Ibid., 40
4. Ibid., 41.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid. Delegates from Vermont and New Hampshire had not yet arrived and taken their seats at the convention. Rhode Island chose to send no delegates to the convention and did not, in fact, ratify the Constitution until May 29, 1790. The rules the convention adopted prior to beginning deliberations required states to vote as a unit. If a majority of delegates from a state were unable to come to an agreement, that state’s vote would be counted as divided.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 41–42.
9. Ibid., 42.
10. Debates in the Several State Conventions, Jonathon Elliott, ed., vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1901), 398.
The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic Page 19
