How would you amend the U.S. constitution?

[jimmy olsen]

If you could wave a wand and convince America to amend the constitution as you see fit, what would you change?

For me, number one would be to abolish the Electoral College and make the Presidential election be dependent on the national vote.

Number two would be to lengthen the term of office for House Representatives to four years and have their elections staggered in halves, half during Presidential years and half in off years.

Number three would be to give Supreme Court Justices 20 year term limits.

I would like to add some protections for civil liberties, but we already have strong constitutional protections for them that all three branches of government have ignored to a greater or lesser degree, so I'm not sure what good that would do.

[Eddie Teach]

I'd establish a monarchy with myself as the sovereign. Maybe you shouldn't entrust me with a magic wand of so much power. 

[Martinus]

I'd establish a monarchy with myself as the sovereign. Maybe you shouldn't entrust me with a magic wand of so much power. 

Yeah, what a stupid premise. I'm pretty sure if Tim had the magic wand he wouldn't do what he said but establish moon bases or commissioned giant robots or something, too.

[jimmy olsen]

I am not a fan of giant robots.

Just answer the damn question seriously.

[Eddie Teach]

Just answer the damn question seriously.

You asked me to set up a government, and that's what I did. 

[MadImmortalMan]

If it mattered what's in the Constitution, I'd give a serious answer. 

[Grinning_Colossus]

I'd ditch the electoral college and the senate and throw in FDR's extra bill of rights and an amendment mandating exclusively-public financing of campaigns. 

[jimmy olsen]

Amendment 4 - House districts must equal the population of the smallest state.

So (Wyoming) 568,158/311,591,917 = 548 seats

[Eddie Teach]

Amendment 4 - House districts must equal the population of the smallest state.

So (Wyoming) 568,158/311,591,917 = 548 seats

You realize that still leaves the other states with under a million either over or underrepresented, quite possibly even moreso than now.

[jimmy olsen]

Amendment 4 - House districts must equal the population of the smallest state.

So (Wyoming) 568,158/311,591,917 = 548 seats

You realize that still leaves the other states with under a million either over or underrepresented, quite possibly even moreso than now.

I'd have run the math to know for sure, but I think it would be more equitable. The number of people per representative would certainly drop significantly which would be good in and of itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population

Amendment 5 - Gerrymandering outlawed. Nonpartisan commissions draw up the districts.

[Brazen]

Repeal the second amendment so your police can go armed with just sticks.

[Ed Anger]

All guns will magically melt when the 2nd gets repealed. A SCIENCE FACT.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I've talked about some of these before, and it looks like Tim is on the same page as me with some:

• More normalized House districts, with each state getting a number equal to how many times its population can be evenly divided by the population of the smallest state. (Affects electoral college as well.)
• House terms changed to four years (I didn't consider staggering, but that's a good idea I'll adopt.)
• Vice President receives enumerated powers in the Senate as its Constitutional President, including power to unilaterally invoke cloture and any debate at any time he sees fit and the ability to call votes on specific legislation.
• SCOTUS selection changed. Presidents can appoint one SCOTUS justice per term. Once they've appointed their one, any further vacancies will be filled via special commission. The commission will be 12 in number, with 4 selected by the Speaker of the House, 4 selected by the Senate and 4 judges selected by the Supreme Court itself. The commission will be chaired by the Vice President and can break tie votes, any candidate receiving majority support in the commission becomes a justice. When selection is done via commission, they may only choose from persons who are already Federal judges and have served in that capacity for at least 4 years. SCOTUS terms are fixed at 20 years, non-renewable.
• Primary elections for President abolished. Instead, roughly around the time of current Super Tuesday a nationwide vote in all States/D.C./territories will be held. The top 5 candidates in that election will be on the ballot in all 50 States come election day in November. Note this is one big election, both Democrats and Republicans will be in this first round of balloting including a sitting President. In theory if the sitting President was not in the top 5, they would not be on the ballot in November and thus would have their term end. Further, anyone in the top 5 will receive full Federal matching funds for the Presidency. Further, new regulations will require a mandatory minimum amount of air time that media outlets sell for political advertising be apportioned to each candidate, regardless of their ability to pay. (Candidates with more money will be able to get ads above the minimum, obviously.) Further still, a series of 3 debates will be conducted by some sub-committee of the FEC. Any candidate that does not attend loses Federal matching funds for the remainder of the election and their campaign will owe as a debt any funds they already accepted. Further, if a candidate refuses Federal matching funds the FEC will set a "maximum" amount of dollars any individual candidate can raise in an election. Anything over the cap, the campaign will have to forfeit 50% of dollars over the cap, the 50% will be distributed proportionally to the other candidates with the lowest funded campaigns receiving larger shares. Additionally, all PACs/Super PACs/Unions/Individuals etc that spend over $10,000 on any activity related to a Presidential election must be a registered entity with the FEC. Once registered these private bodies can do much as they do now, but they are only allowed to spend a certain amount of money in a campaign cycle (cap set by FEC.) Any money spent by them over the cap must be matched 100% by mandatory contributions to the FEC, who will apportion the money to the candidates accepting Federal matching funds in a way preferential to the lowest funded candidate.
• After the above, if no President has a majority of Electoral Votes on election day, the field will be reduced to the top three candidates and a runoff election will be held one month later. If after that election there is still no majority winner, it will go to the House as per the current Constitution.

[jimmy olsen]

I've talked about some of these before, and it looks like Tim is on the same page as me with some:

• Vice President receives enumerated powers in the Senate as its Constitutional President, including power to unilaterally invoke cloture and any debate at any time he sees fit and the ability to call votes on specific legislation.
• SCOTUS selection changed. Presidents can appoint one SCOTUS justice per term. Once they've appointed their one, any further vacancies will be filled via special commission. The commission will be 12 in number, with 4 selected by the Speaker of the House, 4 selected by the Senate and 4 judges selected by the Supreme Court itself. The commission will be chaired by the Vice President and can break tie votes, any candidate receiving majority support in the commission becomes a justice. When selection is done via commission, they may only choose from persons who are already Federal judges and have served in that capacity for at least 4 years. SCOTUS terms are fixed at 20 years, non-renewable.

Nice to see someone taking the topic seriously Otto.

I really like the enumerated powers for the VP. It would definitely cut down some of the gridlock in the Senate.

Don't know about the Supreme Court selection though. If you're going to do that I'd rather have all Justices picked that way rather than President getting a freebie. Would that one be voted on by the Senate in the normal way?

As for the Presidential election. I'd mandate rotating regional primaries. Split the country into five sections. South would go first one cycle, 2nd the next, etc. Each region would vote one week apart starting the first week of May.

I'd definitely overturn Citizen's United.

[CountDeMoney]

Dump Tuesdays  as appointed election days.  We are no longer an agrarian nation that requires two days' travel by horse and buggy after church services on Sundays to polling places, so it is no longer necessary. 

Since Republicans seem to have such an obvious problem with early voting, either 1) make it a Federal holiday so people can truly participate, or 2) do what the Europeans do and vote on weekends.