A Federal Power Check Amendment for the Constitution via Article V

If We the People could add just one amendment to the Constitution, what would it be?

What one amendment would restrain, simultaneously, the excesses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the President?

What one amendment would shift the broad balance of powers back towards our state legislatures and away from the Federal leviathan.

What one amendment would be the most most difficult for the political/lobbyist/donor cartel in Washington to ignore, escape, or pervert?

On December 5, 2015, in Tempe, the Arizona chapter of Convention of States held a seminar that broke into several working groups to answer questions like the ones above. The draft Federal Power Check (FPC) amendment below is based on the output of one of those groups.

Amendment XXVIII [DRAFT]
An Amendment to Check the Power of the Federal Government

Section 1. 
The several state legislatures, by a three-fifths majority vote, shall have the power to:
(1) repeal any law passed by Congress, in whole or in part,
(2) reduce any line item in any appropriations or other spending legislation,
(3) vacate any ruling of the Supreme Court,
(4) cancel any Presidential executive order,
(5) withdraw any regulation, in whole or in part, issued by any Federal agency or department.

Section 2. 
(1) In any action under this amendment, each state legislature shall have exactly one vote, and none of the actions shall be subject to judicial review.
(2) Each action shall become effective on the day that the three-fifths-majority requirement is met.

If We the People could successfully ratify this FPC amendment  (or one like it), imagine how much more respectful and responsive Washington would have to be towards We the People, who, after all, must pay for everything Washington does.

For example —

• Section 1, Clause 1:
  Egregious overreaches like Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, or Sarbanes-Oxley that hurt working families and cripple free enterprise could be partially or fully repealed by We the People.
• Section 1, Clause 2;
  Multi-thousand-page spending bills, written in secret and passed at the 11th hour, could be struck down by We the People on a line-by-line basis, eliminating “pork” provisions without incurring “government shutdown” blackmail.
• Section 1, Clause 3:
  We the People could vacate SCOTUS rulings on social engineering and morality issues that are outside that court’s Constitutional responsibility.
• Section 1, Clause 4:
  Executive orders like Obama’s “pen and phone” orders on immigration, closing Gitmo, or other issues could be explicitly canceled by We the People.  
• Section 1, Clause 5:
  Overreaches by EPA, BLM, HHS, FCC, or any of the other 500+ federal regulatory agencies and departments could be struck down by We the People.

In brief, the FPC amendment or one like it would deliver a long-overdue attitude adjustment to Washington. Like a missile in a silo one expects almost never to fire, its mere presence in the Constitution would force Congress, SCOTUS, and POTUS to look over their shoulders with every bill, ruling, or order they consider, knowing that We the People, through our state legislatures, could reverse virtually anything they do. That is how it should be, and should have always been, in a government of, by, and for the people.

Going forward, an amendment like this would put real teeth into the Declaration of Independence phrase “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Congress, POTUS, and SCOTUS would be mindful of needing that consent every day instead of just once every two, four, or six years at the ballot box.

Furthermore —

We now have an operating debt approaching $19 Trillion and unfunded obligations of over $200 Trillion. Clearly, the original checks and balances in our Constitution have proven insufficient for the federal government to control, on its own, its virtual addiction to power, spending, and entitlement promises that we taxpayers simply cannot underwrite. As with any out-of-control addict, an explicit intervention is needed. We the People therefore need effective state-legislature-driven checks on our runaway federal government.

Every state legislator should welcome the power, responsibility, and obligation to wield an amendment like the one above and/or those in Mark Levin’s Liberty Amendments on behalf of his or her constituents. Any legislator who does not should resign his/her seat to make room for another who will.

An FPC amendment like the one above could well become America’s peaceful revolution of the states, reclaiming our government from Washington’s elites, their K-Street lobbyist pals, and their campaign donors.

Now then —

Could we ever hope to get an amendment like the one above ratified? The short answer is YES. The process for it was placed in our original Constitution in Article V by the Framers who presciently foresaw the day when the central government would become overbearing and drunk on power, just as it has.

Article V is well covered at ConventionofStates.com and in Levin’s best-seller The Liberty Amendments. See also the Article V WesternFreePress.com page at this link.

There have been many concerns about using Article V from the both the left and right. Those concerns are well-addressed at this link. Part of the opposition centers around a theory that with free elections as leverage, the Constitution ought to work “as is” without modification. But it hasn’t, and it doesn’t. How much more proof do we need? While necessary, free elections alone have obviously not been sufficient.

Time is short. If we do not use the authority left to us by the Framers in Article V, the sheer weight, power, cost, complexity, ineptitude, and corruption of the professional political/lobbyist/donor class in Washington will surely sink our country, and we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.

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