And impeach the president: The political and economic blog of a strict constitutionalist.

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Sunday, February 21, 2010

First draft of proposed amendment

This does not look like typical amendments to the constitution. But this gives us a place to start from. Please, make comments.

This is half of it.

Amendment nnn

Section 1. Intent and purpose
The intent and purpose of this amendment is to clarify the relationship and relative powers of the constitution, the judiciary and legislative branches, the relative rights of individuals, groups, and corporations, and the effect of interstate commerce by corporations and state jurisdiction.

Additionally, this amendment seeks to clarify the meaning of "people" as used in the 14th amendment and enforce the 3rd section of the 14th amendment.

Section 2. Definition of "people"
A: People, or person, as used in the constitution, refers to natural people. It explicitly excludes robots, artificial intelligence devices, corporations, or any other created entity.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The goals of an amendment dealing with rights of corporations

This is the first page of this blog dealing with an attempt to write a proposal for a constitutional amendment to address the recent Supreme Court ruling.

I don't know how to write a good amendment.
I do know what I want it to cover.
So I'm putting this out to try to get others to help.

Proposal for constitutional amendment


Intent: Address recent supreme court ruling granting rights to corporations

The central view here is that corporations do not have rights. The 10th amendment specifically assigns rights to people and states, only.

Intent: Permit people to maintain rights as a group

The SC ruled that people may come together as a group and still maintain rights. There is no issue with this -- it is valid. But that doesn't mean that all possible groupings must have all possible rights. A group of protesters that engage in a political protest, and group arrest, is one thing; a corporation that cannot go to jail is something else.
Or does a corporation, upon existing for 18 years, gain the right to vote?
The key: People have rights. Groups of people have rights as the people. Corporations are fictional entities that do not themselves have rights, while the people in those corporations do.


Welcome and introduction

This blog is properly titled "Impeach the president: The political and economic blog of a strict constitutionalist". I have been looking at creating this blog for about 5 years now.

I am not picking on Obama. Since I started paying attention during the Reagan years, every president has violated the oath of office at least once a month. *EVERY* president. The oath of office requires that the president defend the constitution, and generally the president does not take action to stop bad court decisions or other issues.

What finally motivated me is this whole "Corporations have the same rights as individuals" ruling of the supreme court. (Citizens United vs The Federal Election Commission, giving corporate entities more free speech than normal people, and indicating that corporations have full rights of individuals). This is as bad as the Dred Scott decision, and will result in a constitutional amendment.

The biggest question is: Who will write it? What choices will the Senate pass on to the states? Will there be only one proposed amendment, or multiple?

This is what actually drove me to start this blog. I want to make sure that all the issues that lead up to this bad decision by the Supreme Court are addressed and fixed. And unlike most lawmakers who just say "Here's the answer", I want help. I want feedback and discussion with people, not just lobbyists.