Okay, but serious question: if you could enact a couple of constitutional amendments to prevent as much of this as possible, what would they be? We're talking about amendments here, so no "abolish the Senate and make us a unicameral multiparty parliamentary system." Small-to-medium-sized fixes only
Comments
All for breaking up the unitary executive. Independent agencies!
That said: US Institute of Peace wasn’t even an executive branch agency.
Pardon power needs to stay, but ban Ford style blanket pardons and require a process.
Term limits on SCOTUS would also be on my list. Long, single terms, so when you're out, you're out.
- the APA
- the right to privacy
- the right to abortion
- substantive due process
I do not think the DoJ being independent is a good thing, in the sense that it’s way too easy for a rogue DOJ to control the state.
https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-scalia-on-amending-article-v-of-the-constitution/4973187
Of course he was being paid by the NRA to make that argument to keep federal weapons bans from having teeth, but...
Double edged swords and all that.
As a direct answer though, clear cases of personal reform. They did it but they're better people now and they've been in jail for forty years.
i understand your point on pardons, but I share Will's concern about the rampant abuse, coupled with the arbitrariness and bias of how they are applied.
pie in the sky, i know.
Looks like pardon power does more harm than good.
If the president can pardon his own SA-guard, it is better to ditch hole power than try to fix it.
Term limits for Supreme Court justices.
Mandate scrutiny over President's sources of income
Make it easier to remove the President after impeachment
Give more explicit instructions on certain situations where impeachment is mandatory
Ppl under estimate the pernicious effect of 67% of the country watching 33% pick the POTUS every 4yrs for abt 40yrs now
Choosing a leader is no longer a collective national decision
Even when the winner gets a majority, the way campaigns are run & covered make most ppl feel they don’t matter
And that will also have a moderating effect on congressional candidates as they respond to the politics of the POTUS
Many of the other problems can be ameliorated by NPV
Further a reformed Congress probably impeaches Trump the first time around.
The Constitution doesn't give the President much power, it's Congress that enables Trump.
Fixing Congress is the easiest and most effective solution.
You always move goalposts when faced with irrefutably common-sense arguments and solutions.
At this late hour I'm skeptical about making the switch though
We have to fix the Article 1 branch as well as 2 & 3
My demand to limit still stands in my wish list.
Being effectively unable to ratify treaties may be shaping how tariff stuff plays out on the margin.
I'm tempted to say simple majority to convict POTUS in an impeachment trial. Could create some weird situations but the way things are right now impeachment is a dead letter.
And if we can't get rid of the Senate, moving "advise and consent" to the House.
An actual "right to vote" amendment. Currently it doesn't say anywhere explicitly in the Constitution that there is a right to vote.
Just writing it down instead of inferring it would shine a lot of light
So we should start making a list of what we want in there and run on it.
Getting blocked by gop or the court just gives fuel to the fire like abortion did for the right.
You never lose until you quit
Why not start with " 9th amendment fundamentalism"...
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Give each state a minimum of two representatives, and use the least populous state's population as a baseline for apportionment, giving us about 1,157 representatives.
If that sounds crazy, we'd have over 11,000 if we stuck with the original plan.
2. Cleave off DOJ and all archival functions, both go under the judiciary, have three attorneys general elected by top 3 vote.
3. Disclaim unitary executive theory and the filibuster explicitly and affirm the existence of independent agencies.
At this point I think it’s mainly about making the levy higher 🤷♂️
1-amendment. Limit funds to campaigns to only sourced in their districts/states.
2-non partisan setting district borders
Do that, and I'm even OK going back to the Senate being appointed instead of elected.
I would ne happiest with them being reduced to a Hosue of Lords function.
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@uncapthehouse.bsky.social
2. The House shall be elected by proportional representation.
3. Presidential actions require Cabinet approval.
4. If the Senate and House disagree on a bill, the House may order a joint session to vote on said bill.
Significant cutback on use of acting officials
Mandatory Senate hearings for nominees to SCOTUS, circuit courts
SCOTUS expansion to 13 judges
Uncapping the House
Basically just leave enforcement to the executive and put prosecution under someone else.
However, I would still make the AG an Executive appointment, but not SG or department heads. Otherwise you can end up with an AG who just doesn't want to make SCOTUS do things
He agrees
Then like
Minded groups could make coalitions
We have outgrown 2 parties
Codified scope of executive enforcement, i.e. no vague norms based EOs.
Retirement age for Congress and judiciary.
That means turning president to a prime minister, who needs house majority to be in power
You could get rid of presidential elections and let the house pick up president.
(Basically abolish state sovereign immunity, official immunity including QI, Bivens For Literally Everything made explicit)
https://eveningconstitutional.net/how-not-to-reform-the-supreme-court-part-one/
Require any exercise of emergency powers to be subject to mandatory periodic votes of approval by Congress
Congressional Term Limits
Ban Trading among Congressional Members
Ban a Felon from running for President
Institute Ranked Choice Voting
Remove electoral college
Add preferential voting, remove electronic voting, standardise voting rules nationwide
Remove pardons/vetos
Limit use-case of executive order
Penalties and immediate suspension for defying the Supreme Court
Vote of no confidence by 50%+ of states / house of reps will cause a snap election
- 100% income & tax disclosure for electeds, st appointees & immediate families.
- 0% stock/company ownership - inc imm fam.
- No PACs & only contributions from humans eligible to vote for that office.
- Expand supreme, circuit, & district cts.
Gerrymandering illegal. Ranked Choice Voting Alaska Style all Federal elections.
13 members of SCOTUS are former chief justices from each district.
Also mandatory retirement ages across the board.
Modify 1st Amendment to obviate repeal of Citizens United by creating a public finance system.
Identify media support as in kind donations and establish limits.
Establish a wealth tax - progressive to confiscatory at $1BN.
Easy to see the Republicans doing a California recall at the federal level.
Obama would’ve been out in 2010 that way.
It would root the GOP into a forever party.
We see this in India, China, Korea, and Japan.
ERA
Ranked Choice Voting
1) No corporate campaign contributions;
2) Eliminate the Electoral College;
3) Felons cannot run for office;
4) Congressional Elections every 4 years, same as Pres., & Senate is 8;
5) Fed & Primary Elections are 40-days only, and no political ads outside of the election period.
2.) Clarify that some people the president can't unilaterally fire
3.) Establish a process for congressional veto of select exec powers
Democrats shouldn't necessarily run on it but they should absolutely do it. They get the opportunity
issue is that basically guarantees abuse
issue is that I don't think this is all the Constitution's fault
it can't make people enforce it
this is a civic virtue issue, basically a moral issue, and that's not fixable with laws
Rather than a single member and every district, a slate of five gets elected (or some other odd number).
And the makeup of that selection of 5 is proportional
3) Abolish electoral college.
No occupant of the office of POTUS may have any financial interests under his control or the control of anyone in his family.
Amendment #2:
NO corporate money in political campaigns. NO PACs. NO “dark money” of any description. Full disclosure, of all individual contributions.
Also, abolishing deportations. Just jail people if they do crimes.
Limiting pardon power is an easy one.
‘Make DC a state’ is outside the scope of your question but is in the spirit of it I think
✌🏻😎🇺🇸 #hr2797
There are plenty of legislative chambers that have more than 435 members and they seems to get things done.
The #CubeRootRule suggests we should have a House with only 700 representatives.
That seems decent for a population of 330m Americans, right?
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#UncapTheHouse
#hr2797
Since districts are too large, reps essentially have to meet with large donors only.
Smaller districts means voters will feel like they have more efficacy and participate more.
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Legislatively, more reps means specialists can craft the bills in subcommittees, while other reps simply approve or disapprove in whole-house votes. That’s the same process as now, so it wouldn’t really be much slower.
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What do organizations have to do in order to “get more done”?
Either increase capital or increase labor.
Congress already has access to the same capital as the public, therefore the only thing which can be added is more labor, as in, more representatives.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN11547
2. 2A revised to clearly require military or civil service to acquire gun ownership rights.
-Permitting the Tenure of Office Act as constitutional, such that political appointees can't be fired without the consent of the Senate.
Dems benefit a lot more from campaign $.
There is no legal cure to a group of people deciding on a political course of action like following Trump.
In addition, most $ favoring GOP is spent by PACs or directly by individuals, not donations.
Only Dem donors would stop at this rule.
Only Dem donors would stop at this rule.
District drawing commission.
Some sort of limits on the pardon power
2-On qs of statutory interpretation, SCOTUS should pose a question to joint session of Congress.
3-Emergency exec actions require supermajority approval of living ex-presidents. Can be stripped by impeachment, which is explicitly allowed post-term.
2) cabinet positions need 2/3 votes not 51.
5) relegating the actual administration of some laws to the states with feds funding the programs/services and setting standards to follow.
All members of all parts of government are subject to the same laws and punishments as any citizen. They are immune from nothing.
There will be no religious exceptions to vaccines.
2. Age limit (70-75?) for election to office (barring passed cognitive test).
3. Background check for prospective national candidates (must qualify for equivalent of TS clearance to be eligible)
4. Expand Congress to match current population.
Constitutionally forbid equity control of journalism, if you aren't a writer owned cooperative you don't get first amendment protections?
I dunno how you stop Kochs from breaking the game.
2) Elect the president by a simple popular vote of all US states, territories, and the District of Columbia.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule
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@uncapthehouse.bsky.social
#hr2797
and fire them right then. They can appeal it thru the courts like the rest of us have to do.
Make lying bad again
2. Any bill passed by one chamber must be voted on unamended by the other chamber within 20 days or it passes automatically. Senate must do the same for presidential appointments.
It's much better to make the bills not pass. Otherwise one chamber can generate very large bills by large numbers and keep passing them to fuck the other chamber.
Right now the Leader of the Senate or the Speaker of the House can just choose to not take up bills that would pass if given a vote.
McConnell killed several bills and judicial appointments this way.
But this rule would mean that a chamber would have to send a bill to another chamber, do something (like filibuster or jsn 6 or go home) to prevent the other chamber from voting, and viola. They can get any bills passed.
Neither chamber can adjourn without the other chamber.
If there's another Jan 6, we've got bigger problems than some bill being sent to the President.
Current Congressional deadlock is killing us and it benefits the party that wants the government to fail.
A Jan 6 need not succeed. It only needs to be disruptive,or even just threatened.
The GOP is aiming for deadlock because they can't auto-pass bills.
If they could, they would just go for it.
I know a lot of people don't like that, but I don't see any realistic way around it.
All states who ratified the Constitution did so with the understanding they'd have equal representation in the Senate. Change that, and the states will no longer be bound by it.
It has to be unanimous to be legal.
An Amendment doesn't dissolve the Constitution.
The States could keep their equal suffrage in a vestigial Senate. Maybe even set the number of senators to zero per state (still equal).
(Hopefully it's obvious that I'm being silly and that this isn't something I actually have strong feeling about.)
Will your question is essentially 'what is the one thing wrong with our country?' & the #1 answer is corruption.
Capping contributions low would stop the year-round campaign drives to please the party. Our reps need to work, not sell their souls to lobbyists every day.
2) Expand supreme court.
3) Give supreme court enforcement arm.
RIght now what they are doing is already unconstitutional. But we have Govt. by EO because the slowness/weakness of the judiciary allows them to exploit.
https://archive.is/2025.05.02-101810/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/john-fetterman-struggle-mental-health-clinical-depression.html
I'd also have a career limit of 24 or 30 years between the two chambers.
Fix SCOTUS - term limits in particular.
Fix Congress - term limits, end gerrymandering, uncap the House, eliminate Senate filibuster.
Write the 1965 VRA into the constitution
Seems like we’re far enough into the experiment we can clarify their role and ethical requirements
You can also get rid of the Senate or adjust the numbers by amendment.
But without disturbing the basic balance:
(1) pass an amendment making the supreme court and both chambers much larger.
(2) establish a supreme court of cassation separate from the supreme constitutional court
(3) an amendment to do away with /
(4) make immigration court part of article III courts.
(5) lower the threshold for conviction on impeachment
(6) explicitly enshrine every judge-created 14a right
1. All laws passed by Congress must have an expiration date. Passing new laws seems much easier than repealing old ones, so this would prevent buildup of law cruft. Plus, occasional entertainment when they scramble to re-enact something they forgot about.
Precisely define the emergency.
Define conditions when it will end.
May in no circumstances last longer than 30 days or have effects which will exceed that time.
May be overturned by a simple majority w/no veto."
That means anyone jailed due to an 'emergency' cannot be held longer than the duration of the emergency or 30 days, whichever comes first. Tariffs, likewise, cannot be extended.
I also think making sure the president is the winner of the popular vote would be essential, but that would require bigger rewrite.
Acknowledge the truth wealth concentration is in conflict with the stated goals of a liberal state and creates kings
Pass the ERA
Term limits for Congress
No felon can run for office
- Rip off the Irish Presidential nomination requirements to require either a threshold of states' legislatures or Federal legislators to nominate
- Spending limits?
1. Let the House undo pardons
2. Simple majority for cloture. Cannot be altered. (Talking filibusters only)
3. No US officers immune from prosecution. May be impeached/barred from holding office even after leaving office.
4. Treasury must take loans to pay for authorized spending.
6. Change EC to be fully proportional by state.
7. Automatic expansion of the House
8. New court above SCOTUS made up of state Supremes to appeal issues of federalism only.
Just make filibuster mean real filibuster (standing up and talking to prevent progression of Senate business, not just a procedural vote).
Abolish Citizens United.
Explicitly bar presidents from issuing pardons to anyone who had been employed by their administration
This is why the Senate is broken.
And the Senate is the one that was supposed to impeach the criminal.
When Ds regain power, they should consider these fixes.
@housedemocrats.bsky.social @democrats.senate.gov
@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @warren.senate.gov @booker.senate.gov @sanders.senate.gov @aoc.bsky.social @raskin.house.gov
A presdient must NOT be allowed to simply override the need for security checks for staff (e.g., like he did with Jared)
MGIC (Merit based Immigration & Citizenship)
* this is a rough draft outline
V.O.T.E (Petition platform)
C.O.R.T.E.A (executive orders expire w/o congressional approval after 60/90 days)
J.U.D.G.G.E (Review of SCOTUS judges every 10 years)
Those are my top 3
Also: Sec Def & AG should not be nominated by president
2. A prohibition on the spending of private money to influence elections + mandate for congress to fund campaign.
3. Proportional representation in the house of Representatives.
Limit BP/ICE to Ports of Entry & max 25 miles from border on uninc. land. ICE restricted to Customs & shepherding post-conviction felons homeward.
20-30 year term limits for Congress and Supreme Court. Mandatory retirement for severe impairment health conditions.
Basically, you can play with the federal government but actual representation is a requirement
Again don’t know what that looks like but I think we need it
Something that applies to the executive
That might not be systematic but would help address the current crisis
1st amendment carve out allowing Congress to legislate campaign finance redorm
* Wyoming rule for the house, and it should be proportional representation by state. Sorry, mention political parties in the constitution.
* Also make the Senate the same size as the house. 6y terms still, 1st past the post, take the district system the house has.
Too large to happen
* Remove "high crimes and misdemeanors" from the impeachment clause. That increases confusion: you can impeached for anything.
* President can't pardon himself
* No qualified immunity[*] or presidential immunity or any of the other made up immunities
-Money is not speech (get rid of Buckley v Valeo and Citizens United)
-Publicly fund elections.
Limits on super pacs/expenditures on elections
Expand SC to 11, add one new justice every 2 years, and drop the longest tenure ones after 22 years.
Expand congress to 900-1000 reps
Use every procedural tool to remove power from the senate.
2) Some element of proportionality in the house. Winner takes all means only the loudest voice is heard, and the biggest group of loudest voices wins every time. No clear majority means softer voices must be listened to.
Inequality and political polarization are correlated.
A corporate inclination toward greed isn’t entirely unnatural. But corporate personhood weaponized and empowered that greed
Elevate and codify that departments created by Congress can only be undone by Congress.
Codify term limits for scotus (18 year?) and a rotating 15 judge panel.
-Automatic voter registration
-Abolish EC/federally run presidential elections
The justices would just quit after their terms are over, and take a job elsewhere.
Yes, it does require that we get judges that meet a minimum bar for non corruption. I can’t solve for everything.
This is known as 'revolving door corruption' and we mostly see it at the cabinet level/independent agency level
Leveraged buybacks are prohibited.
2. Triple the locations for voting, with locations focused in low income neighborhoods
3. Media coverage of candidates must be even spread across all candidates, even smaller parties
4. Redraw zones to eliminate gerrymandering
6. Military bases overseas must be dismantled
7. Progressive tax policy to scale with wealth inequality.
8. Decomodify housing
9. Land back for aboriginals
10. Single payer / gov funded healthcare
11. Jobs program to fund infrastructure developme
13. Make public key industries and monopolies
14. Make public non-profit organizations (see Matt Desmond’s poverty by America)
15. Make union busting illegal