Peter Namtvedt
08/2010 Separation of Sex and State
Peter Namtvedt
08/2010 Twenty-eighth Amendment
Urban Legends
Congress shall make no law to pay its members more than the average pay of their constituents.
Scott Webster Wood
07/2010 The Principles of Federal Employment
Section 1
Every government employee shall be paid the lesser of the rate of the average pay for the entire nation or the average pay of the state or territory in which they work.
Section 2
No employee of the United States government shall be a member of a labor union.
Peter Namtvedt
07/2010Congress shall make no law infringing the freedom of education and the arts. (Separation of state and school)
Congress shall make no law infringing the freedom of how disease is treated. (separation of state and medicine).
Yaron Brook
07/2010 Separation amendments
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, page 1068
06/2010 The Read the Bills Act
Peter Namtvedt
05/2010 Effective checks and balances
Peter Namtvedt
04/2010 Repeal Power to Tax
Businesses would be expected to contribute the most since they have the most to protect.
Any person or business that does not contribute in proportion to their wealth may freely be shunned and boycotted.
Peter Namtvedt
In protest against Randy Barnett's value added tax as a substitute for all other taxes.
04/2010
The power of Congress to make all laws which are necessary and proper to regulate commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations, shall not be construed to include the power to regulate or prohibit any activity that is confined within a single state regardless of its effects outside the state, whether it employs instrumentalities therefrom, or whether its regulation or prohibition is part of a comprehensive regulatory scheme; but Congress shall have power to regulate harmful emissions between one state and another, and to define and provide for punishment of offenses constituting acts of war or violent insurrection against the United States.
Article [of Amendment 3] -- [Unfunded Mandates and Conditions on Spending]
Congress shall not impose upon a State, or political subdivision thereof, any obligation or duty to make expenditures unless such expenditures shall be fully reimbursed by the United States; nor shall Congress place any condition on the expenditure or receipt of appropriated funds requiring a State, or political subdivision thereof, to enact a law or regulation restricting the liberties of its citizens.
Article [of Amendment 4] -- [No Abuse of the Treaty Power]
No treaty or other international agreement may enlarge the legislative power of Congress granted by this Constitution, nor govern except by legislation any activity that is confined within the United States.
Article [of Amendment 5] -- [Freedom of Political Speech and Press]
The freedom of speech and press includes any contribution to political campaigns or to candidates for public office; and shall be construed to extend equally to any medium of communication however scarce.
Article [of Amendment 6] -- [Power of States to Check Federal Power]
Upon the identically worded resolutions of the legislatures of three quarters of the states, any law or regulation of the United States, identified with specificity, is thereby rescinded.
Article [of Amendment 7] -- [Term Limits for Congress]
No person who has served as a Senator for more than nine years, or as a Representative for more than eleven years, shall be eligible for election or appointment to the Senate or the House of Representatives respectively, excluding any time served prior to the enactment of this Article.
Article [of Amendment 8] -- [Balanced Budget Line Item Veto]
Section 1. The budget of the United States shall be deemed unbalanced whenever the total amount of the public debt of the United States at the close of any fiscal year is greater than the total amount of such debt at the close of the preceding fiscal year.
Section 2. Whenever the budget of the United States is unbalanced, the President may, during the next annual session of Congress, separately approve, reduce or disapprove any monetary amounts in any legislation that appropriates or authorizes the appropriation of any money drawn from the Treasury, other than money for the operation of the Congress and judiciary of the United States.
Section 3. Any legislation that the President approves with changes pursuant to the second section of this Article shall become law as modified. The President shall return with objections those portions of the legislation containing reduced or disapproved monetary amounts to the House where such legislation originated, which may then, in the manner prescribed in the seventh section of the first Article of this Constitution, separately reconsider each reduced or disapproved monetary amount.
Section 4. The Congress shall have power to implement this Article by appropriate legislation; and this Article shall take effect on the first day of the next annual session of Congress following its ratification.
Article [of Amendment 9] -- [The Rights Retained by the People]
Section 1. All persons are equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights which they retain when forming any government, amongst which are the enjoying, defending and preserving of their life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting real and personal property, making binding contracts of their choosing, and pursuing their happiness and safety.
Section 2. The due process of law shall be construed to provide the opportunity to introduce evidence or otherwise show that a law, regulation or order is an infringement of such rights of any citizen or legal resident of the United States, and the party defending the challenged law, regulation, or order shall have the burden of establishing the basis in law and fact of its conformity with this Constitution.
Article [of Amendment 10] -- [Neither Foreign Law nor American Judges May Alter the Meaning of Constitution]
The words and phrases of this Constitution shall be interpreted according to their meaning at the time of their enactment, which meaning shall remain the same until changed pursuant to Article V; nor shall such meaning be altered by reference to the law of nations or the laws of other nations.
Click here for an explanation of each Amendment
Professor Randy Barnett, Georgetown University Law School
For the Whereases and preamble dicta, go to Forbes
03/2010 Too Hard to Regulate
Peter Namtvedt
02/2010Congress shall make no law establishing a particular economy; rather, it shall leave the economy alone, only subject to the same laws against the use of force and fraud applicable to individual persons. However, in order to enable individuals or groups of individuals to sue corporations or other forms of business for wrong-doing, Congress may enact such laws as may be required to permit the sale of the right of claim by such who are done wrong to any other party who may have resources to mount an effective legal suit against the business alleged to have committed the wrong.
Peter Namtvedt
01/2010 The Composition of Congress Amendment
Section 1
All candidates for the Senate shall have a college degree with a major in finance or economics and shall keep up knowledge in both finance and economics by taking advanced courses every five years.
Section 2
All candidates for the House of Representatives shall have a college degree with a major in finance or economics or political science, and shall keep up knowledge in economics by taking courses in that subject every five years.
Section 3
No senator or representative or any member of their office staff is permitted any contact by lobbyists or private citizen representing more than him or herself.
Section 4
It shall henceforth be unlawful for individuals or groups to lobby or to induce members of congress by any favors, future or present, in money or in kind, to sponsor a bill or vote for any bill that favors any group of the electorate, corporation or unit of government, including funding for projects or tariffs or regulation that benefits one segment rather than the general welfare.
Section 5
A new body of congress is hereby established whose purpose is review of existing law with the full power to repeal and abolish any act which contradicts any clause of the constitution. Repeal or abolition shall be determined by a majority of this House of Repeals. Each state shall elect one Repealer who will serve ten years. Eligibility for this office shall be the same as that of the House of Representatives.
Section 6
Any decision by the supreme court can be overturned by a three fourths majority of the congress.
Section 7
A new officer of the people, the Ombudsman for Constitutional Law, shall challenge any act of congress that he or she deems lacking in constitutional authority or contradicting the constitution or which may be in violation of any individual rights, which cannot be enumerated.
Section 8
The supreme court shall not maintain any presumption of constitutionality in favor of any act of congress.
Peter Namtvedt, 12/12/2009
12/2009 Composition of Congress Amendment
Section 1
The term of every senator age 35 and above shall be 20 years, recallable by election if a petition or vote by 30 percent of the residents of legal voting age of their state so indicate. All candidates for the Senate shall have a college degree with a major in finance or economics and shall keep up knowledge in both finance and economics by taking advanced courses every five years.
Section 2
The term of every representative age 30 and above shall be 20 years, recallable by election if a petition or vote in a special election callable by 10 percent of the state's voters, by 30 percent of the residents of legal voting age of their state so indicate. All candidates for the House of Representatives shall have a college degree with a major in finance or economics or political science, and shall keep up knowledge in economics by taking courses in that subject every five years.
Section 3
No senator or representative or any member of their office staff is permitted any contact by lobbyists or private citizen representing more than him or herself.
Section 4
No member of any congressperson's staff may become a lobbyist or consultant to industry or other special interest group regarding government favors or regulations within 10 years of leaving congressional employ.
Section 5
A new body of congress is hereby established whose purpose is review of existing law with the full power to repeal and abolish any act which contradicts any clause of the constitution. Repeal or abolition shall be determined by a majority of this House of Repeals. Each state shall elect one Repealer who will serve ten years. Eligibility for this office shall be the same as that of the House of Representatives.
Section 6
Any decision by the supreme court can be overturned by a three fourths majority of the congress.
Section 7
A new officer of the people, the Ombudsman for Constitutional Law, shall challenge any act of congress that he or she deems lacking in constitutional authority or contradicting the constitution or which may be in violation of any individual rights, which cannot be enumerated.
Section 8
The supreme court shall not maintain any presumption of constitutionality in favor of any act of congress.
Peter Namtvedt, 12/12/2009
11/2009 Supreme Law of the Land
Peter Namtvedt
11/2009 Making Government Work
2. Enact a twenty-year sunset for all currently existing federal departments, agencies, bureaus, military bases on foreign soil, taxes, tariffs, foreign treaties and federal regulations, and thereafter every federal department, agency, bureau, military base on foreign soil, tax, tariff, foreign treaty, and regulation shall automatically sunset every ten years.
3. Outlaw any privately owned entity or corporation from usurping a power granted by the Constitution of the United States to Congress or the President.
4. Require that every ten years the approval of a majority of state legislatures shall be required to renew the continuation of every federal department, military base on foreign soil, federal tax, and foreign treaty.
5. The attorney general of any state, as authorized by the state's governor, legislature, or popular referendum, may sue the federal government to nullify any Act of Congress, federal regulation, or executive power, that violates any section of the Constitution of the United States, and such lawsuit shall be given an immediate hearing by the Supreme Court of the United States.
J. Neil Schulman, writer, http://jneilschulman.rationalreview.com/2009/11/five-modest-nonpartisan-suggestions-for-making-american-government-work/ November 4, 2009
10/2009 Separation of State and Economy
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged(last page)
09/2009 Separation of State and Medicine
L. Neil Smith August
08/2009 Separation of State and Medicine
L. Neil Smith August 12, 2009.
08/2009 Permit greater competition amendment
Peter Namtvedt
07/2009 Interpretation Amendment
Interpretation of the constitution shall begin with the purpose of government, that of securing the individual's rights to life, liberty and property (the means to the pursuit of happiness), and that these rights are not privileges granted by the government, but rights with which all individuals are born.
Section 2
These individual rights are not fully defined in this constitution, for it is impossible to list them all.
Section 3
The powers of the government are exhaustively defined in this constitution, and none are to be identified as "implied" or as new or modified powers because of a "compelling need" of the government. Of all interests, the interests of individuals must be deemed as the most compelling.
Section 4
All acts presented for passage into law before Congress shall be examined based on the presumption of liberty. Just as in a criminal trial the accused is presumed innocent and must be proven guilty, in the legislative process, the presumption must be that any proposed law is not needed until proof is presented. While no crime is in question in the latter process, nor punishment, any of the innumerable individual rights may be at stake. The proposed act, if enacted, may impinge on, constrain, limit, infringe on, abridge or deny individuals' rights to life, liberty and property.
Section 5
Such process to ensure the presumption of liberty must place the burden of proof on the government, to establish that the interest at stake is individual rights, and that any act proposed secures such rights without impairing the rights of others.
Peter Namtvedt
06/2009 The Rights Retained by the People
Section 2. The due process of law shall be construed to provide the opportunity to introduce evidence or otherwise show that a law, regulation or order is an infringement of such rights of any citizen or legal resident of the United States, and the party defending the challenged law, regulation, or order shall have the burden of establishing the basis in law and fact of its conformity with this Constitution.
Professor Randy Barnett of Georgetown University Law School
A piece of FederalismAmendment.com
05/2009 Federalism Amendment
Section 2: Nothing in this article, or the eighth section of article I, shall be construed to authorize Congress to regulate or prohibit any activity that takes place wholly within a single state, regardless of its effects outside the state or whether it employs instrumentalities therefrom; but Congress may define and punish offenses constituting acts of war or violent insurrection against the United States.
Section 3: The power of Congress to appropriate any funds shall be limited to carrying into execution the powers enumerated by this Constitution and vested in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof; or to satisfy any current obligation of the United States to any person living at the time of the ratification of this article.
Section 4: The 16th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed, effective five years from the date of the ratification of this article.
Section 5: The judicial power of the United States to enforce this article includes but is not limited to the power to nullify any prohibition or unreasonable regulation of a rightful exercise of liberty. The words of this article, and any other provision of this Constitution, shall be interpreted according to their public meaning at the time of their enactment.
RANDY E. BARNETT in the Wall Street Journal
04/2009 Separation of State and Economy
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged(last page)
03/2009 Regulatory Takings Amendment
Since the right of private property centrally includes authority of the owner to determine the use of the goods, land, or other assets possessed, all federal regulations shall be understood by the courts as partial federal takings of the property regulated, compensible under the 5th amendment to the full consequent loss in value of such property.
Section 2:
Compensation to the property owners is to be paid by the agencies issuing the regulations from their own congressionally budget funds.
Section 3:
Congress shall not legislate any exceptions whatsoever for small takings, nor shall the courts allow any such exceptions.
Section 4:
No federal regulatory proposal issued by an executive branch agency shall have any legally binding effect on the parties to be regulated except after a rollřcall ratification vote achieving at least a simple majority in each house of congress and signature of the President of the United States. Presidential veto of such a regulatory ratification bill may be overridden by the normal procedure.
Section 5:
Separate regulatory proposals from a given executive branch agency must be ratified by congress in separate bills. Nor may congress bundle regulatory proposals from different agencies into a single ratification bill.
Section 6:
Failure by any member of the Federal judiciary to enforce to the letter sections 1 and 3 above shall be grounds for impeachment.
Submitted by James Rolph Edwards
Professor of Economics
Montana State University-Northern, February 2009
[Inspired by Richard Epstein, Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (Harvard University Press, 1985)]
02/2009 Regulatory Takings Amendment
Since the right of private property centrally includes authority of the owner to determine the use of the goods, land, or other assets possessed, all federal regulations shall be understood by the courts as partial federal takings of the property regulated, compensible under the 5th amendment to the full consequent loss in value of such property.
Section 2:
Compensation to the property owners is to be paid by the agencies issuing the regulations from their own congressionally budget funds.
Section 3:
Congress shall not legislate any exceptions whatsoever for small takings, nor shall the courts allow any such exceptions.
Section 4:
No federal regulatory proposal issued by an executive branch agency shall have any legally binding effect on the parties to be regulated except after a rollřcall ratification vote achieving at least a simple majority in each house of congress and signature of the President of the United States. Presidential veto of such a regulatory ratification bill may be overridden by the normal procedure.
Section 5:
Separate regulatory proposals from a given executive branch agency must be ratified by congress in separate bills. Nor may congress bundle regulatory proposals from different agencies into a single ratification bill.
Section 6:
Failure by any member of the Federal judiciary to enforce to the letter sections 1 and 3 above shall be grounds for impeachment.
Submitted by James Rolph Edwards
Professor of Economics
Montana State University-Northern, February 2009
[Inspired by Richard Epstein, Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (Harvard University Press, 1985)]
02/2009 Definitions Amendment
The purpose of government as stated in the Preamble is binding. No action of the United States government shall be aimed at any other end than "to 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."
Section 2
"Justice" has the meaning of individual rights, where an individual has the right to do with his person and property whatever he wills as long as it imposes no coercion on others.
"General Welfare" has the public meaning of measures or action by government that makes the structure of federal government work better for everyone, not special welfare or any action that satisfies a special interest or locality.
"Commerce among the several States" has the public meaning of trade involving transporting for trade between states, not activity within a state.
"Laws which shall be Necessary and Proper" has the public meaning of laws being aimed at the "foregoing Powers" of paragraphs one through seventeen of Article I, section 8, and required rather than convenient to accomplish the legitimate end.
01/2009 College of Rescinding
The third part of Congress shall be the College of Rescinding, made up of one Rescinder per state.
Section 2
Any existing law shall be repealed and annulled by majority vote.
Section 3
Such repeals require the signature of the President of the United States. The same procedure for over-riding a presidential veto of a new law shall apply to repeals.
Peter Namtvedt
12/2008 Anti-moral Hazard Amendment
Section 1.
Congress shall make no law that uses tax funding or borrowed funding or equalized fee collection to back up risky lending by banks or savings and loand associations, as this encourages lenders to take unnecessary risk.
Section 2.
Congress shall make no law to fund making anyone good for damage due to natural disasters, such as setting up homestead or buying property and adding improvements in areas prone to natural disaster, since this encourages individuals and businesses to purchase inexpensive land and have the cost of risk due to losses externalized.
Section 3.
Congress shall make no law transferring the cost of any risky undertaking to the general public which could incur higher taxation or inflationary borrowing, since moral hazard is created, which encourages externalizing private costs to other individuals.
Peter Namtvedt
12/2008Congress shall make no law to sell bonds or to borrow in any form, nor to make paper money without hard backing, nor to establish anything else as legal tender.
based on
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be hard on us. But not so hard as ten wars instead of one. For wars could be reduced in that proportion; besides that the State governments would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798.
11/2008 Monetary Reform
The medium of exchange being a private contractual matter, congress shall make no law establishing money
Section 2
Congress shall make no law regulating the quantity of money, neither gold, silver or any other material or electronic exchange thereof, being used as money.
Peter Namtvedt
10/2008 Government Office Requirements
10/2008It shall be a federal felony if anyone violates any clause of the highest law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, whether the person is an individual citizen, government employee, appointed or elected to government office.
Peter Namtvedt
10/2008 Separation of Government from the Market and Culture
Congress shall make no law affecting production or trade.
Section 2
Congress shall make no law affecting the independence of objectivity of any scientific endavour, or leading to undue influence of government on science or of science on government.
Section 3
Congress shall make no law affecting the independence of religion, or leading to undue influence of government on religion or of religion on government.
Peter Namtvedt
09/2008It shall be a federal felony if anyone violates any clause of the highest law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, whether the person is an individual citizen, government employee, appointed or elected to government office.
Peter Namtvedt
09/2008Congress shall make no law that abridges the rights of any individuals to favor the rights of other individuals, or that raises some rights, such as civil rights, above other rights, such as the right to private property and all other rights in production and trade.
Peter Namtvedt
08/2008 Protection the foundation of all basic rights
Suggested by Ayn Rand, "The Nature of Government" in Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal.
07/2008 Police Seizures of Property
Congress shall make no law that authorizes any agents of justice to seize the property of persons accused of wrong doing unless said property is deemed to be evidence regarding the wrong doing.
Section 2.
In all cases the property deemed evidence shall be returned to the owner or personal representative at the conclusion of the court trial or upon dismissal of charges.
Peter Namtvedt
06/2008 Limiting Military Powers Amendment
SECTION II: In the absence of a formal declaration of war, it is likewise forbidden for any American military or police force to deny — or be ordered to deny — foreign nationals in their own territories the free exercise of any right protected by the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution.
SECTION III: No claim of emergency, not the age or condition of any person, is sufficient grounds for violating or evading the provisions or intentions of this Amendment.
SECTION IV: Any elected or appointed official at any level of government who violates or evades the provisions or intentions of this Amendment is subject to imprisonment and fine for each violation; should a death occur as a result of said violation, the official in question shall be subject to the death penalty.
L. Neil Smith, in his book, "Lever Action" page 133
06/2008 Legislative Cleansing
Congress shall make no new law without repealing at least two existing laws, starting with the most intrusive on the livelihoods of citizens and small business.
Section 2. Congress shall make no law without a) establishing by in depth investigation that the new law protects the natural rights of citizens and b) that the proposed law does not deprive other citizens of their natural rights.
Peter Namtvedt, inspired by Randy Barnett.
05/2008 The Sunset Amendment
Section 2: All federal departments (such as the Department of Education,
the Department of Housing and Urban Development, et al.), agencies, and/or
bureaus currently in existence which have been established by law since the
establishment of the seven original cabinet departments shall, within six
months of the adoption of this amendment, be randomly assigned an automatic termination date between five and twenty years from that time. Continuance of such department, bureau or agency shall have the same requirements specified in section 1.
Section 3: Upon termination of a department, bureau, or agency, its assets are to be sold by auction to private parties, and the revenue from those sales, minus the cost of selling the assets, shall be rebated to taxpayers in proportion to their individual taxes paid in the previous year. In the following year federal taxes and the budget are to be reduced by an amount equal to the budget of that department, bureau or agency in the last year of its operation.
Section 4: No original cabinet department shall establish a bureau or
agency within itself designed to perform any function outside the legal function and powers granted to that cabinet department in its original congressional authorization, nor may congress expand the powers of such cabinet agencies beyond their original legal authorization.
James Rolph Edwards, Professor of Economics, Montana State University-Northern
05/2008Congress, or any other branch of government shall not borrow or lend money or gold for money, this includes purchasing on credit. To request a further amendment beyond this to replace this Amendment or alter it in anyway is Treason, history having shown that borrowing money or creating money with nothing backing but debt it has crashed the economy of countless nations and societies and led to corruption and the breaking down of the political systems of the past.
Michael de Amon
The management of this website does not support this proposed amendment because of the treason clause. Such a limitation would be disregarded if passed, and would likely be omitted if voting ever should take place on such a proposal.
05/2008 Banks and Money
Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of banks.
Section 2.
Congress shall make no law regarding the amount of gold that any arbitrary denomination shall be, or preventing the use of given weight and metal name as the name of the coin.
Section 3.
Congress shall make no law regarding what shall be legal tender.
Peter Namtvedt, inspired by an article by Edwin Vieira, Jr. at Gata.
04/2008 Real Crimes Amendment
No federal, state or local agents may entice, incite or provide incentives to anyone to commit a crime.
Section 2.
It cannot be a crime to merely think about committing a crime or consult, converse or conspire with anyone to do so. Conspiracy to commit a crime shall not be a substitute or additional criminal charge.
Section 3.
No act, regardless of how heinous it may be according to some people's moral sentiments, that causes no physical harm to others, shall be considered a crime.
Section 4.
No person, including agents of a government may commit a crime in order to enforce a law.
Section 5.
The right to due process under the law applies at all times to any encounter of officers of the law and a citizen, including from the time of arrest, not only when a trial begins.
Peter Namtvedt
03/2008 The Power of Secession
The sovereignty of the several states not being ceded to the United States government and the absence of constitutional power for the United States to use force to maintain the union, the right of a state to secede shall not be infringed.
Section 2
A state may secede from the United States by a vote of three quarters of the people or three quarters of its legislature.
Peter Namtvedt
02/2008 Keep and Bear Arms Tyrannical government being a perpetual possibility and self defense being a constant obligation, the pre-existent right to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged.
Section 2
A citizen's right to keep and bear arms may be regulated to such arms as a foot soldier bears, but not as pertains to time, place or circumstance.
Peter Namtvedt
02/2008 The Liberty Amendment
SECTION 2. The constitution or laws of any State, or the laws of the United States, shall not be subject to the terms of any foreign or domestic agreement which would abrogate this amendment.
SECTION 3. The activities of the United States Government which violate the intent and purposes of this amendment shall, within a period of three years from the date of the ratification of this amendment, be liquidated and the properties and facilities affected shall be sold.
SECTION 4. Three years after the ratification of this amendment the sixteenth article of amendments to the Constitution of the United States shall stand repealed and thereafter Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, and/or gifts.
Ron Paul
01/2008Congress shall make no law that violates, infringes on or abridges anyone's life, liberty, or property, including enumerated and unenumerated rights. A process must be followed duly that must find that no potential right is harmed before an act can be considered law.
Suggested by Randy E Barnett in his The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law.
12/2007 Change the makeup of Congress
Based on Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
11/2007Each Act of Congress shall contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that Act. The failure to comply with this section shall give rise to a point of order in either House of Congress. The availability of this point of order does not affect any other available relief
Rep. John Shadegg, Arizona Republican, in a Washigton Post story by Walter E. Williams, October 24, 2007
11/2007 Principles of legality They should be promulgated, that citizens might know the standards to which they are being held. There should be no retroactive rule-making and application. Laws should be understandable.
They should not be contradictory.
Laws should not require conduct beyond the abilities of those affected.
They should remain relatively constant through time.
There should be a congruence between the laws as announced and their actual administration.
Lon Fuller, in The Morality of Law
10/2007 Terms for Justices and Judges
Section 2.
Section 3.
United States Supreme Court Justices, District Court or Court of Appeals Judges shall be appointed for a term of six years.
Any such Justice or Judge of said Federal Government may be re-appointed one term of six years after their first term of service.
All of these Justices and Judges shall fall into three classes, with the first to require re-appointment immediately are the one third in number who have served the longest, and the second class being the one third who have thereafter served the longest who require reappointment three years later, and the third class being the remainder requiring reappointment six years later.
Peter Namtvedt
10/2007[N]o American soldier, Sailor[, Airman] or Marine [shall] be used for any purpose except to protect the coastline of the United States, and protect his home, not an oil well in Iraq, a British investment in China, a sugar plantation in Cuba, a silver mine in Mexico, a glass factory in Japan, an American-owned share of stock in any European factory — in short, not an American investment anywhere except at home.
General Smedley Butler, in a speech to the House of Representatives, 1934
09/2007 Limited Powers of War
Congress shall not authorize the use of military force for any purpose unless it is in the form of an explicit declaration of war.
Section 2.
The executive branch shall not engage in any military action except in the case of attack on or invasion of the United States or its possessions.
Section 3.
Immediate military response to an attack or invasion shall be limited to twenty days.
Section 4.
In the event of military action in response to attack or invasion, the President is to seek before Congress a declaration of war. If Congress does not concur with the military response, the troops shall be withdrawn within sixty days.
08/2007Congress shall enact no law that does not apply equally to all Americans.
[Equal treatment would require Congress to figure out the cost of the constitutionally authorized functions of the federal government, divide it by the adult population and send us each a bill for our share. - Walter Williams]
Friedrich Hayek, quoted by Walter Williams who asked Hayek if he could propose one law that would restore, promote and preserve liberty in our country, what that law would be.
07/2007 What if the Declaration of Independence had some small changes? What if it had said "deriving their just powers from the unanimous consent of the governed"?
Suggested by L. Neil Smith, in the novel The Probability Broach
07/2007 Non-delegation
Peter Namtvedt
06/2007Individual citizens have the right to have firearms for personal protection, and to protect us form the government or from an invasion. Any weapon commonly carried by soldiers shall be included.
T. Costigan
04/2007Government shall have no authority whatsoever over the freedom of production, transportation, communication, and trade.
David King A Guide to the Philosophy of Objectivism
02/2007Congress shall have power to regulate harmful emissions having an interstate effect; but in making commerce regular between the states, Congress shall make no law restricting manufacture, agriculture or gainful activity that could potentially affect interstate trade or exchange.
Suggested by comments of Randy E. Barnett, in his book Restoring the Lost Constitution: the Presumption of Liberty
12/2006No private property shall be taken for public use or for public purposes, such as businesses which might generate more taxes, regardless of how just or generous the compensation might be that is offered to the owner.
Peter Namtvedt
03/2007Section 1
Congress shall follow the Presumption of Liberty in passing any act, ensuring that no individual or state right is violated, enumerated or unenumerated, as per Amendments IX and X.
Section 2
Court decisions shall interpret the United States constitution based on narrow reading of government powers and broad reading of individual and states rights, as per Amendments IX and X.
Section 3
Courts shall base decisions on the presumption of liberty and the common meaning to people at the time when the constitution or amendments to it were written, and shall not override the same by laying heavy weight on past court decisions or dicta, or common law precedents, some of which have been hastily decided, or contrary to principle, and inviting of further contradictions with the constitution, as binding, but only as guidance in sharpening ambiguities.
Peter Namtvedt
05/2007The government is not a person but a service agency and shall not own buildings, land, vehicles for transport on land or water, or implements and tools, but shall lease them all from private individuals or associations, using competitive bidding.
Peter Namtvedt
04/2007The services of government not needing to be monopolies, congress shall make no law that imposes a tax on income from any source, or on the purchase, use or sale of anything, but shall generate the revenues it needs by voluntary contributions and fees for services.
Peter Namtvedt
01/2007In regulating commerce congress shall make no law preventing commerce with foreign nations or among the several states, but only to make it regular, that is, to ensure that it is fair and not partial to any state.
Peter Namtvedt
12/2006The purpose of justice being to determine whether a crime or wrong-doing has been committed, who is guilty of that crime and to undo the harm and making whole the person or household that is harmed by crime or wrong-doing, the right of the people to restitution shall not be infringed. The primary interest of all mediation services and criminal courts shall be the restoration of the victim of a crime rather than to generate revenue for bureaus.
Peter Namtvedt
11/2006Congress shall make no law without first ensuring by due process that a proposed new law is based on the presumption of liberty rather than the presumption of constitutionality. Any new law may inadvertently extend the enumerated powers of government and diminish the rights of the people. Since any new law has the potential for infringing on liberties recognized to exist before the United States were formed or liberties recognized by the Constitution, therefore it is required to show by due process that no right is violated by presenting the government case and also the case of those who may be harmed.
Peter Namtvedt
10/2006No branch of government shall make a law or decision establishing or maintaining a monopoly in any service or product, whether in the private or public sector.
Peter Namtvedt
10/2006Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged(last page)
09/2006Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged(last page)
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