The right wing's abuse of constitutional amendments

[Pushed To The Left]

It seems that if the Constitution doesn't allow a right wing idea to become law, the first thing the right wing does is to try to amend the Constitution! We're seeing it right now with all of the anti-gay amendments on the ballot in different states, including blue states. If marriage equality is protected in the Constitution, they'll just amend it! If flag burning is protected in the Consitution, they'll just amend it! It doesn't matter if anything the Bush Administration wants to do isn't Constitutional, because they can simply pass an Amendment. This is becoming a very dangerous precedent. What's the point of even having a Constitution? It seems that amending the Constitution, whether at the federal or state level, should be a much more difficult process.

[MadMaddie]

1. This is true...

Lets see how easy it is to do this if Dems get back in power.

[radio4progressives]

2. why are the democrats letting it go?

oh yeah, that's right. only the right wing in the party are letting them get away with it.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

3. They can't simply "pass an amendment"

I believe 3/4 of the states have to pass the amendment as well -- there have only been 27 amendments to the US Constitution in 217 years -- during that time literally hundreds of amendments have been proposed, and some have passed Congress only to be bogged down in the state ratification process.

As for how simple or difficult it is to amend a state constitution, that varies from state to state; the differences are all the result of our federalist system, and so long as no state constitution conflicts with the federal constitution, any changes will have to be done at the state level.

[Burning Water]

4. Amending the Constitution

is perfectly legitimate. Fortunately, it is also very hard to do.