THE PLAN
This is a solid, three step plan. People who have been trying for years to find a way to do it have hailed it as "Brilliant," "Outstanding, " "That will work" and “I wish I had thought of that,” while predicting it has an 80% to 90% probability of success. In today's political spectrum, those are pretty good odds.
What you see here is just the text from the fully formatted for easy reading document that will be mailed to all 7,000 plus members of the State Legislatures. Therefore, the cover of the document is not shown, just the internal text and it is in “website” format.
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A Plan To Repeal The 17th Amendment
To The Constitution of the United States
Originally, the framers of the Constitution specified that U.S. Senators would be appointed by the State Legislatures. The 17th Amendment took that power away from you. As an active member of a State Legislature, you are or should be fully aware of the near disastrous consequences that has had for the nation, the States and the people.
Since there is no need to recite a litany of abuses you have suffered at the hands of Congress and the federal bureaucracy, we will assume you would like to see that power returned to your Legislature and will proceed on that basis.
As a reminder, Article V of the Constitution specifies: "The 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. . ."
Because of the procedures in that Article, conventional wisdom says the 17th Amendment can never be repealed, because the Senators, particularly two-thirds of them, will never vote to end their cushy incumbencies.
This is not true.
When 38 or more States join together and follow through with the three step plan outlined herein, it will happen. The secret to success is to work at if from the opposite direction.
Note: If your Lawyers are concerned that bringing the Legislatures together to act as a cohesive unit might violate the Compact Clause of the Constitution, refer them to U.S. Steel Corp. V. Multistate Tax Commission, 434 U.S. 452 (1978) or Northeast Bancorp V. Board Of Governors, FRS, 472 U.S. 159 (1985) In both cases, the Supreme Court made it very clear that it will not be. |
THE PLAN
STEP I: Since it takes an Amendment to repeal an Amendment, the first step is to draft an Amendment you and all the other Legislatures can submit to Congress for enactment and return to you for ratification. As with any other item of contemplated "legislation," the task to draft the Amendment is assigned to a Committee. But this time it is not an internal Committee. It is the "Committee of 100," which we are hosting.
Committee Members
Number : Three from each Legislature. One member from each chamber in the bicameral Legislatures, plus one "Recording Clerk." (Staff), two members at-large from Nebraska and one Recording Clerk..
Qualifications : Individuals who are duly elected members of the Legislature. Other than that, we fervently hope that whoever does the selection or assignment, will choose individuals who really do want to see the 17th Amendment repealed and can be relied upon to approach the task with the same sense of dignity, honor, duty and obligation to posterity displayed by the delegates to Philadelphia in 1787.
Meeting Location
Committee members need not travel to Philadelphia or any place other than home or office. All business and communication of the Committee will be via Email, routed to and through the Moderator (see below) at a dedicated special web page that will automatically copy all members and recording clerks.
Members will know each other only by their Email "names." State and party affiliations will not be known. This will be done in order to avoid partisan or regional rivalries from entering into and affecting the final output of the committee.
Your Recording Clerk's Email address will be included in the distribution list. He or she will be blocked from sending an Email into the system, but will receive a copy of every transmittal flowing through the Committee. This will give you a complete, up-to-date, record of all communication.
Meeting Timing
Interim period between 2008and 2009 sessions. If the members will commit to checking their Email every evening, it could be handled in a week.
The Moderator
Is not a member of or associated with any Legislature.
Will have neither vote nor veto power in the Committee.
Will enforce the rules -- time limit on votes, etc - maintain order and keep a record of the proceedings.
Is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School
Published in Law Review - 1st Amendment Freedom of Speech issue.
Is thoroughly versed on Constitutional History and Law. Therefore, he is eminently qualified to provide a comprehensive background on the use and abuse of the appointment power that led to adoption of the 17th Amendment and impress upon the members that their labors in the Committee have the same seriousness and far reaching impact on our nation as did the 1787 meeting in Philadelphia.
Will be the only one who knows the names and States of the members and, for posterity, will record the proceedings in that context.
The Amendment
As with all legislation emerging from Committee, the Amendment to repeal the 17th produced in the Committee of 100 may not have everything you want and might even contain some provisions you don't like, but the first two clauses will probably be:
Clause 1: The Seventeenth Article of Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Clause 2: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one vote.
These two accomplish the basic requirement, repeal of the 17th and maintenance of the Senate. Hopefully, the additional provisions will close the door on past and future abuses of the process. We say "hopefully," because we are not drafting the amendment, you are. We are simply providing the means, method and nonpartisan environment for you to get it done.
STEP II: The Amendment produced by the Committee will be introduced into the Legislatures for an up or down vote without modification. The States that vote it "up," hopefully all 50, will submit it to Congress for enactment. The request should contain a time limit for Congress to act, preferably, no longer than January 3 of the year following submittal. This will be critical if STEP III is needed.
You will not be alone. Thousands of citizens from around the nation who want this very much will be bombarding Congress with phone, FAX and Email, particularly the Senate, to get it done.
We believe the odds are about 50/50 that you will get the amendment at this point.
STEP III: (Provisional) Two conditions must exist before this step will be taken.
1. At least 38 States have submitted an identical Amendment for enactment.
2. Congress has failed to act within the time frame specified in the request in STEP II.
If those two conditions exist, you go to court, contending that submittal of an identical amendment by three fourths or more of the States constitutes a de facto ratification. This is why having identical amendments is so important. That contention is just one of the many in this matter that will carry a great deal of weight with the court. Here, you have solid, irrefutable, Constitutional history and documentation on your side.
This is why the time sequence is important. The Amendment is produced in the interim between 2008 and 2009. It gets an "up" vote and is submitted to Congress during the 2009 session. If it has not been enacted by January 2010, you do what is necessary in the 2010 session to take it into STEP III.
If it has to go to STEP III, people who have been trying for years to find a way to get this done predict odds are about 80/20, maybe as good as 90/10 that you will get the amendment.
Without revealing all the weapons that will be at your disposal, we can't emphasize enough that this is a really solid case if it gets to court under the conditions outlined above.
SUMMARY
To misquote a Founding Father, "Unless the States hang together, they most certainly will be left to hang out to dry separately."
You have nothing to lose but a whole lot to gain.
ACTION REQUESTED
If you are in a leadership position, by fax or Email notify us of the name and Email address of a member who will participate and the Email address of your "Recording Clerk." Include your state and the member's position - Senator or Representative - but do not include party affiliation. We don't want to know that. Much of what happens in government today is arbitrarily and too often erroneously assigned to one political box or another.
If you are not in a leadership position, call the person who is and volunteer to serve on the Committee of 100.
If you have any questions regarding anything included or not included herein, feel free to call, FAX or Email. Addresses are on the cover. We respond quickly.
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After note: For our nation to survive we must break up the concentration of power in DC. This is the only way it can be done.
If not now, when?
If not us, who?
Next, is the last stop. Go to Summary