What should be changed about the constitution and why?

[terdheadur]

Just curious. Also would like to hear ideas on how to accomplish said changes. BE NICE. Its ok to agree to disagree.

[whistler162]

1. Perhaps a edit is in order.

[terdheadur]

3. What did i miss?

[shenmue]

2. Pass the ERA

Many things need to be done, but that's a good place to start.

[pinto]

7. Agree. That's a federal constitutional issue.

[TBF]

17. It was in the USSR's Constitution of 1977 -

and still we wait for it here.

[immoderate]

4. Codify non-personing of corporations. Public fund elections.

Nullify Citizens United.

For a good start.

--imm

[arcane1]

5. Voter registration becomes automatic at age 18, no registration needed except to determine precinct.

I'd add that the government could NEVER take away the right to vote. No matter what crimes you commit, you still have that voice.


I'd spell out what "personhood" means, and it only applies to biological human beings.

Publicly financed elections.

[TheNutcracker]

9. Voters STILL won't show up! Place a fine end of year tax time, like Austrailia! 250.00

they have a 92% turnout!

[Walk away]

6. Dump the outdated and dangerous 2nd Amendment! nt

[femmocrat]

8. Here's what Justice Stevens has to say about amending the wording:

This is a really good read:

The five extra words that can fix the Second Amendment

>snip<

As a result of the rulings in Heller and McDonald, the Second Amendment, which was adopted to protect the states from federal interference with their power to ensure that their militias were “well regulated,” has given federal judges the ultimate power to determine the validity of state regulations of both civilian and militia-related uses of arms. That anomalous result can be avoided by adding five words to the text of the Second Amendment to make it unambiguously conform to the original intent of its draftsmen. As so amended, it would read:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed.”

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-five-extra-words-that-can-fix-the-second-amendment/2014/04/11/f8a19578-b8fa-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html

[imthevicar]

12. Ahem

The following are taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, and bracket in time the writing of the 2nd amendment:

1709: "If a liberal Education has formed in us well-regulated Appetites and worthy Inclinations."

1714: "The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world."

1812: "The equation of time ... is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial."

1848: "A remissness for which I am sure every well-regulated person will blame the Mayor."

1862: "It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding."

1894: "The newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well-regulated American embryo city."

The phrase "well-regulated" was in common use long before 1789, and remained so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the people's arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that the founders wrote it.

[TheNutcracker]

10. Citizens United. We the People have no voice because of this ruling by the courts.

Move to Amend.....

[rock]

11. Term limit for Supreme Court Justices

We need to start with the most corrupt part of the government and clean it up. Let's start with SCOTUS: One term only with no re-appointment with a two year term. Achieves the same effect that the framers wanted in that the Justice is raised above politics ( ) by having appointment for life. The good point is, of course, it throws the assholes out faster than they can stink up the place.

[ancianita]

13. I have ten:

Reinstate as mandatory and operational: Habeas Corpus and the Posse Comitatus

1. Revise 2nd Amd to include all military hardware for civilians OR to ban all weaponry from anyone -- police or civilian -- that are non-hunting.

Add the following amendments:
2. the ERA for all women.
3. define personhood as solely organic
4. define speech as solely that of organic personhoods
5. Permanent Voting Rights Amendment that maximize all felon and other citizens' voting; and No Money in Campaigns, which minimizes public funding to a permanently capped public financing of candidates, reviewable every twenty years.
6. No Lobbying at state or federal levels, with non-disclosure clauses required of each and every exiting elected official.
7. Making public education a fundamental right for America-born citizens, with a permanent base funding distributed across states from the federal budget.
8. Make ALL suspensions of any parts of the Constitution the basis of immediate dismissal of the guilty parties by a Citizens Council of Fifty.
9. All Majorities of Government shall be, without exception, majorities of 50% + 1.

Sorry it's worded sloppily, but these five changes have been discussed around here so much that I assume others know what I mean.

[Reter]

22. 9 just might requite a ConCon

n/t

[ancianita]

23. Likely so. Having lost so much civilian command of intel, armed forces and defense industries,

perhaps it's past time.

[lastlib]

14. Eliminate midterm elections.

Reps serve four years, Senators serve eight. (So each state would elect one Senator in one election, then the other in the next; have one senator up in every election.) So the president would get a full term to pursue his policies, and Congress would have three years to actually do something instead of just campaigning every other year.

Repeal the Second Amendment. Pass the ERA.

Federal judges would have 30-year terms instead of lifetime tenure.

Article II needs a better definition of Presidential war powers, with better Congressional control.

Eliminate corporate personhood, and mandate strict campaign finance regulation. Voting rights guaranteed.

[Joe Bacon]

15. Proportional Representation in the House of Representatives.

Elimination of Congressional Districts. Each state has a minimum of 3 Representatives and each States delegation is apportioned by proportional representation.

[Matrosov]

18. Edits to the First and Second

Hate speech based on race, gender, and sexual orientation should be criminalized

The right to bear arms should be limited to the police and military and exclude individuals

[IronGate]

20. Let me address this.

Hate speech based on race, gender, and sexual orientation should be criminalized

No, hate speech needs to be countered with facts, not criminalized.

The right to bear arms should be limited to the police and military and exclude individuals

Once again, NO.

[Chan790]

19. Assuming you don't mean adding amendments...

as there's a process for that and it takes place often enough:

Nothing. Nothing, at all. There are parts of it I'm not fond of, such as the lack of clear intent on meaning in the 2^nd Amendment...but there's nothing that I think should be omitted.