I write in response to another article on the Grok that discussed the past and present failures of McConnell, McCarthy, and the rest of the GOPe’s failure to do anything about Benghazi, “Big Tech,” or (most likely) Afghanistan.
I would add to this Clinton’s illegal email server, the Biden family multi-generational corruption (as documented in a laptop held by the FBI), and any number of other betrayals of the public trust.
Unfortunately, I agree that nothing will be done about any of these failures. The reason is simple: too many politicians from all sides of every aisle are in the same bed, and stay in that bed for decades. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.
So, I propose the following three new Constitutional Amendments: one to implement term limits on Congress, one to enjoin Congress from exempting itself from the law, and one to force the SCOTUS to stop issuing non-Constitutional decisions.
Term Limits:
- No person shall be serve more than 12 years as an elected member of Congress, whether through appointment or election or any combination thereof, whether served consecutively or cumulatively. The term of office shall be automatically and permanently terminated on the first day of the member’s 13th year in office.
- Each State shall set its own process for replacement of a term-limited legislator, with the exception of reelection or reappointment of that legislator.
- There shall be no exceptions.
Exemption From Law:
- Congress shall pass no law exempting itself, the Supreme Court, the Executive Branch, any appointed or elected member of the United States Government, or any individual or group from any law, with the exception of those exemptions directly enumerated in the text of the Constitution.
- There shall be no exceptions.
Justiciability:
- The Supreme Court of the United States, and any inferior courts, shall not issue decisions that are not justiciable according to the clear text of the Constitution, or decisions on issues that are not enumerated in the Constitution.
- Congress shall pass no law that does not have a basis in the enumerated powers of the Constitution.
Commentary:
The Constitution is clear on the powers of Congress. And those powers exist solely to run a government. They do not exist to “give people stuff” or “make lives easier”. Or even to enable the “pursuit of happiness”. That’s in the Declaration of Independence: not the Constitution.
The point is this: some laws passed by Congress and some SCOTUS decisions just don’t pass muster. The Defense of Marriage Act was abhorrent to the Constitution because the Constitution is silent on marriage. Therefore, since new law cannot be “made up out of whole cloth”, it is unconstitutional to set any rules on marriage. For the same reason, the SCOTUS Obergefell v Hodges decision is also unconstitutional.
And because the Constitution is silent on medical procedures, the SCOTUS Roe v Wade decision is also abhorrent to the Constitution. Simply put, the “right to choose” is not enumerated in the text of the Constitution or in any of the Amendments. This may all seem cruel and heartless but it isn’t. The very fact that these debates exist means that they are based on opinion – and hotly contested opinions should never be the basis of either a law or a judicial decision.
The need for medical care, housing, food, education and employment were desperately needed during Colonial times. The Founders knew that these needs would change over time, that science would continue to advance medicine and agriculture, and that an educated population was key to the survival of the new United States of America. But the Founders did not enumerate these issues in the Constitution. They did not want federal (e.g. “central”) control over those issues. They left them to the States and gave the States the power (thru the 10th Amendment) to pass their own laws regulating those issues.
This may all seem cruel and heartless but it isn’t. The point is to force these debates back from the courts to where they belong: in the legislative process of each State, and then to the clear text of the Constitution.
