Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for a constitutional convention, looking to revive support for an existing movement that seeks a constitutional convention. Abbott also offered a number of Amendments of his own that he’d like to see proposed at such a convention.
- Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs in one state
- Require Congress to balance its budget.
- Prohibit administrative agencies from creating law
- Prohibit administrative agencies from pre-empting state law
- Allow a two-thirds majority of the states of override a Supreme Court decision
- Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law
- Restore balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution
- Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds
- Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law regulation.
But no constitution, whether our existing one (favored by me, with a single Amendment concerning term quasi-limits), our existing one as amended by Abbott’s proposals, or any other constitution, has no value whatsoever in the hands of a government whose men and women ignore it at convenience.
Abbott himself tacitly noted this, but he seems to have missed the meaning of his own remark.
The Supreme Court is a co-conspirator in abandoning the Constitution. Instead of applying laws as written, it embarrassingly strains to rewrite laws like Obamacare.
Before it’s useful to discuss modifications to our Constitution, it’s necessary to replace in toto the men and women of our government with men and women who understand and will respect rule of law and the supremacy—especially over their own actions—of our Constitution.
Once our Constitution has been restored to its proper place, then we can set about assessing where, if anywhere, it might profitably be amended. Not until.
