r/TheLibertyAmendments Aug 19 '13

The Liberty Amendments

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  • AN AMENDMENT TO ESTABLISH TERM LIMITS FOR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

    SECTION 1: No person may serve more than twelve years as a member of Congress, whether such service is exclusively in the House or the Senate or combined in both Houses.

    SECTION 2: Upon ratification of this Article, any incumbent member of Congress whose term exceeds the twelve-year limit shall complete the current term, but thereafter shall be ineligible for further service as a member of Congress.


  • AN AMENDMENT TO RESTORE THE SENATE

    SECTION 1: The Seventeenth Amendment is hereby repealed. All Senators shall be chosen by their state legislatures as prescribed by Article 1.

    SECTION 2: This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

    SECTION 3: When vacancies occur in the representation of any State in the Senate for more than ninety days the governor of the State shall appoint an individual to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term.

    SECTION 4: A Senator may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the state legislature.


  • AN AMENDMENT TO ESTABLISH TERM LIMITS FOR SUPREME COURT JUSTICES AND SUPER-MAJORITY LEGISLATIVE OVERRIDE

    SECTION 1: No person may serve as Chief Justice or Associate Justice of the Supreme Court for more than twelve years.

    SECTION 2: Immediately upon ratification of this Amendment, Congress will organize justices of the Supreme Court as equally as possible into three classes, with the justices assigned to each class in reverse seniority order, with the most senior justices in the earliest classes. The terms of office for the justices in the First Class will expire at the end of the fourth Year following the ratification of this Amendment, the terms for the justices of the Second Class will expire at the end of the eighth Year, and of the Third Class at the end of the twelfth Year, so that one-third of the justices may be chosen every fourth Year.

    SECTION 3: When a vacancy occurs in the Supreme Court, the President shall nominate a new justice who, with the approval of a majority of the Senate, shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term. Justices who fill a vacancy for longer than half of an unexpired term may not be renominated to a full term.

    SECTION 4: Upon three-fifths vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress may override a majority opinion rendered by the Supreme Court.

    SECTION 5: The Congressional override under Section 4 is not subject to a Preidential veto and shall not be the subject of litigation or review in any Federal or State court.

    SECTION 6: Upon three-fifths vote of the several state legislatures, the States may override a majority opinion rendered by the Supreme Court.

    SECTION 7: The States' override under Section 6 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 8: Congressional or State override authority under Sections 4 and 6 must be exercised no later than twenty-four months from the date of the Supreme Court rendering its majority opinion, after which date Congress and the States are prohibited from exercising the override.


  • AN AMENDMENT TO LIMIT FEDERAL SPENDING

    SECTION 1: Congress shall adopt a preliminary fiscal year budget no later than the first Monday in May for the following fiscal year, and submit said budget to the President for consideration.

    SECTION 2: Shall Congress fail to adopt a final fiscal year budget prior to the start of each fiscal year, which shall commence on October 1 of each year, and shall the President fail to sign said budget into law, an automatic, across-the-board, 5 percent reduction in expenditures from the prior year's fiscal budget shall be imposed for the fiscal year in which a budget has not been adopted.

    SECTION 3: Total outlays of the United States Government for any fiscal year shall not exceed its receipts for that fiscal year.

    SECTION 4: Total outlays of the United States Government for each fiscal year shall not exceed 17.5 percent of the Nation's gross domestic product for the previous calendar year.

    SECTION 5: Total receipts shall include all receipts of the United States Government but shall not include those derived from borrowing. Total outlays shall include all outlays of the United States Government except those for the repayment of debt principal.

    SECTION 6: Congress may provide for a one-year suspension of one or more of the preceding sections in this Article by a three-fifths vote of both Houses of Congress, provided the vote is conducted by roll call and sets forth the specific excess of outlays over receipts or outlays over 17.5 percent of the Nation's gross domestic product.

    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.


  • AN AMENDMENT TO LIMIT FEDERAL 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 Accoutability Office and the Congressional Budget Office, shall be submitted to a permanent Joint Commitee 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 it's 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.

    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 requirement 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 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 vote 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 nation elections, are proscribed unless a reliable identification and secure voting regimen is established by the state legislature.


r/TheLibertyAmendments Aug 16 '13

Mark Levin Introduces His New Book "The Liberty Amendments: Restoring The American Republic"

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Unlike the statists who defy, ignore and rewrite the Constitution for purpose of evasion -- as they push their big government rules and regulations -- I propose that we, the people, take a closer look at the Constitution itself for our preservation. The Constitution provides the means for restoring self-government and averting societal catastrophe. Or, in the case of societal collapse, resurrecting the civil society in Article V.

Article V sets forth the two processes for amending the Constitution, the second of which we're going to focus on. Article V says, in part:

Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress

Importantly, and I want to emphasize this, in neither case of amending the Constiiution does Article V provide for a Constitutional Convention. This is important, because you'll hear critics say, "We don't need a Constitutional Convention! We'll never get anyone better than the Framers!"

And they're right! This isn't a Constitutional Convention. This is a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution.

In other words, Congress can propose amendments to the Constitution -- and has in 27 cases that have been ratified -- and the states can too, through the convention process. The first method, where two-thirds of Congress passes a proposed amendment and then forwards it to the state legislatures for possible ratification by three-fourths vote. And that has occurred 27 times.

The second method, involving the direct application of two-thirds of the state legislatures, for a convention of proposing amendments -- not a Constitutional Convention, a convention for proposing amendments, which would thereafter require three-fourths of the states to ratify -- has been tried in the past without success. And today it sits dormant.

The fact is: Article V expressly grants state legislatures significant authority to re-balance the Constitutional structure for the purposes of restoring our founding principles should the federal government shed its limitations, abandon its original purpose, and grow too powerful as many delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention feared.

Which is exactly why they provided for two methods of amending the Constitution. On June 11, 1787 -- at the Constitutional Convention -- George Mason of Virginia, one of the most underrated of the Founding Fathers and one of the greatest men in American history, who had drafted Virginia's "Declaration of Rights", the precursor to the Declaration of Independence... he responded to some of the delegates who didn't see the necessity of having the states propose amendments. Which Mason strongly advocated for!

In [James] Madison's Notes from the Constitutional Convention, he writes about Mason's comments:

Colonel Mason urged the necessity of such a provision : "The plan now to be formed will certainly be defective, as the Confederation has been found on trial to be. Amendments, therefore, will be necessary ; and it will be better to provide for them in an easy, regular and constitutional way, than to trust to chance and violence. It would be improper to require the consent of the national legislature, because they may abuse their power, and refuse their assent on that very account. The opportunity for such an abuse may be the fault of the Constitution calling for amendment."

And so there was some debate. And two days before the end of the Constitutional Convention -- on September 15th -- Mason was back at it. Mason, concerned that Congress would have the sole power to propose amendments, continued to insist on state authority to call for conventions. George Mason explained that an oppressive Congress would never agree to propose amendments curtailing its own tyranny.

Back to Madison's Notes, citing Mason, "thought the plan of amending the Constitution 'exceptionable and dangerous. As the proposing of amendments is in both the modes to depend, in the first immediately, and in the second ultimately, on Congress, no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the government should become oppressive, as he verily believed would be the case.'"

Quote, unquote, Madison's Notes, September 15th, 1787.

Mr. Governeur Morris, Mr. Eldridge Jerry of Massachusetts moved as to amend the article as to require a convention on application of two-thirds of the states.

And there you have it.

Under both amendment procedures, the Constitution requires at least three-fourths of the states ratify the amendment -- either by their state legislatures or by the state conventions. So again, rather than Congress proposing amendments, what's suggested here is that the states can and should convene to do the same thing.

Now: I was originally very skeptical of amending the Constitution by the state convention process. I, like many of you, was concerned that it could turn into a runawy caucus, And, as an ardent defender of the Constitution who reveres the brilliance of the Framers, I presumed this would play disastrously into the hands of the Statists.

But today but I am a confident and enthusiastic advocate for the process. The text of Article V makes it abundantly clear that there is a serious check in place, whether the product of Congress or the state convention, A proposed amendment has no effect at all unless ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states or by the conventions in three-fourths thereof.

This, ladies and gentlemen, should extinguish concerns that the convention process could hijack the Constitution. It is impossible. And after more research and reflection, the issue crystallized further for me. If the Framers were alarmed that states calling for "a convention proposing for amendments to the Constitution" could undo the entire undertaking of the Constitutional Convention, then why did they craft, adopt and endorse the language?

And it was strongly endorsed in the Federalist Papers -- by Madison and Hamilton in Federalist 43 and Federalist 85.

And here's the beauty of the process: Congress' role in the state application process is minimal and ministerial. And it couldn't be otherwise, because the Framers and Ratifiers adopted the state convention process for the purpose of establishing an alternative to the Congressionally-initiated amendment process. That was the point.

Now you can see why the ruling class and their little mouthpieces are going to hate me: because this removes power from them.

It gives power to the state delegates and state senators, who you will have an effect on one day. And this is what my new book is about: The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic.


r/TheLibertyAmendments Jan 02 '21

Liberty Amendments - listen to it for free

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Aug 14 '20

Mark Meckler explains how he helped found the Convention of States Project and launch the modern Article V movement

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Jul 29 '20

Liberty Amendments, by Mark Levin: A Five Part Series of Commentaries, Part One

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 24 '20

Week Ahead: 2-24-2020

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 24 '20

Let your voice be heard: sign the petition to call a Convention of States!

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 14 '20

The Liberty Amendments -- Restoring the American Republic

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 14 '20

Impeachment Trial: Mark Levin Nailed It

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 14 '20

July 10, 2013 - A grassroots movement was born.

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 14 '20

Former Convention of States state director runs for state legislature in Iowa

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 14 '20

From the author of The Liberty Amendments — Unfreedom of the Press: Mark Levin’s Book of the Year

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 14 '20

Mark Levin: Concerned for America? "Get off your ass and do something"

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 13 '20

Keeping Eyes & Ears Out!

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 13 '20

Convention of States Action - Latest News.

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 13 '20

‘The Risk is Minimal’: Justice Scalia On The Need For A Convention of States To Restrain Federal Power

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6 Upvotes

r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 13 '20

Opposed.

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 13 '20

Budget-Busting Debt Ceiling Deal Strengthens Argument for Convention of States

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Feb 16 '17

President Trump and the Runaway Judiciary: The Founders Have Provided the Remedy -- Mark Levin in his seminal book The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic calls for such a convention to consider two amendments to rein in the Judiciary.

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Jan 10 '17

The Daily Ledger: Convention of States Texas primed to lead in 2017

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Oct 07 '16

Articles: Don't Mix Up Your Conventions, or You Might Destroy the Country

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Sep 26 '16

OFFICIAL PROPOSALS OF THE SIMULATED CONVENTION OF STATES Adopted September 23, 2016 in Williamsburg, VA

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Sep 26 '16

The first ever, historic Convention of States Simulation is now complete. One-hundred and thirty-seven delegates representing every state in the nation convened in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, Sept. 21-23, 2016

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Sep 14 '16

Texas again ponders calling for convention of states

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Sep 13 '16

First-Ever Simulated Convention of States Announces Commissioners

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Sep 12 '16

Towards a Renewed Mind: Christian Worldview and Timely Political Commentary: A Convention of States

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r/TheLibertyAmendments Sep 12 '16

Towards a Renewed Mind: Christian Worldview and Timely Political Commentary: Who Do The Article V CoS Opponents Really Stand With?

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