Author: DUDLEY CRAWFORD

Article 10 – Amendments

Replace the Constitution with a new Constitution
A Constitution may replace another Constitution at the direction of a legal Constitutional Convention.

Amend the Constitution with an amendment(s)
An amendment must address only one topic,
There shall be the text (body) of the amendment,
The amendment shall not contain run-on sentences, i.e., sentences with semicolons or colons or other continuation punctuation. Each line of the amendment must express one thought and one thought only,
There shall be a section for definitions of the words used in the amendment if any of the words appear likely to have a debatable meaning over time,
There shall be a section for examples of the actions in the amendment if any of the actions appear likely to have a debatable meaning over time,
There shall be a section ordering Congress and/or the States to do the work needed to create any laws needed to implement the amendment.
There shall be a time set for the amendment to become a part of the Constitution.
No amendment is allowed which attempts to limit the power of future Citizens to amend the Constitution in any way. For example, State Representation in the Senate is a core principle of the federal system. We consider it disastrous to change the Senate to be representational like the House. Such an action was prohibited in the previous Constitution. If future Citizens wish to make that change, they can do so. Citizens must learn from their mistakes as well as their successes.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution. Notice that we make it much harder for Congress to propose amendments than Citizens or States.
The Citizens shall be granted the power of referendum to propose amendments. After 10% of the United States Citizens sign a petition of amendment, the petition signatures being approved in the various States, it will go to the SCOTUS for approval. The approval is only advisory. If not approved, the Citizens may make the modifications indicated by SCOTUS, the Citizens may drop it or the amendment shall go to the States for ratification if desired. If the amendment is changed then it must be resubmitted to the Citizens for approval again.
The States shall be granted the power to recommend amendments. Once the legislatures of 55% of the States have approved the amendment, it shall go to the SCOTUS for approval. The approval is only advisory. If not approved, the States may make the modifications indicated by SCOTUS, the States may drop it or the amendment shall go to the States for ratification if desired.
Once a State legislature or a public referendum has been taken, that vote in that State cannot be changed throughout the term of the pending amendment.

SCOTUS shall have one month from submission to publish their ruling on the amendment. Immediately after the ruling, the amendment will be forwarded to the States for their votes if the court approves the amendment. If not, then the amendment is returned to the Congress for the modifications indicted by the court or Congress may drop the amendment entirely.
Ratification will be by Convention not by the State legislatures.
States will be given three years to have a ratification vote on the amendment. If enough Yes votes is not registered in three years, the amendment will be abandoned. Approval of amendments shall be by 2/3 of the States.
The date the amendment becomes effective is fourteen days after the last State needed for Ratification votes for the amendment.
Congress will be given thirty days from the day of ratification to propose any new laws needed to implement the amendment.
The laws will be published for the Citizens to read and understand before implementation. The Citizens will be given two weeks to express their concerns before Congress votes.
The Legislatures of the various States may determine the rules for conducting a Ratifying convention except as noted elsewhere in this Constitution. No public person can be a delegate to the convention. The convention delegates must be, as nearly as possible, common Citizens of that State.

The District of Columbia shall be limited to one square mile, the boundaries to be determined by Congress.
No person can be a resident in the District of Columbia except the President and his staff. The staff are not required to live in the District.
The ninety-nine square miles taken away from the National City will be divided between Virginia and Maryland by natural geographic boundaries and be known as Washington.
Congress will be limited to governing the square mile.
The city of Washington will operate its own affairs under the jurisdiction of its respective States.
There will be no honorary representative for the square mile as there will be no Citizens to represent beside the President and his staff.
The President and his resident staff shall vote in the nearest voting station outside of the National city.
There shall be nothing in the National City except Federal property in the form of buildings, monuments and more.
Private businesses are prohibited from residing in the National City.
Foreign embassies and consulates are prohibited from the National City.
The purpose of the National City is to provide a place for government employees to work and nothing more. Any private businesses or residents in the designated one square mile of the National City must move out before the expiration of twenty-five years after the Ratification of this Constitution.
Any crimes committed in the National City will be investigated by law enforcement officials from the Virginia and Maryland portions of Washington, DC on a rotating basis.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land. The Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support the Natural Rights found in this Constitution. No religious Test or test of any kind shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

This Constitution shall be sent to the Ratification Conventions of all the States in the United States.
The composition of the Ratification Conventions shall be as described elsewhere in this Constitution.
Acceptance of this Constitution shall be by Ratification Conventions only.
The rules of procedure for the Ratification Conventions will be as described elsewhere in this Constitution.
The date the Constitution becomes effective is fourteen days after the last State needed for Ratification votes for the amendment.
Neither the Citizens nor the States nor the Ratification Conventions may make any amendments to this Constitution.
Once a Ratification Convention has concluded, the Yea or Nay vote shall be forwarded to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Once forwarded no Ratification vote may be changed for any reason.
The Ratification of this Constitution of the Conventions of the specified number of States (3/4), shall be enough for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.
Should the Ratification fail due to enough majority, then the previous Constitution shall remain in effect.
If enough majority is achieved, then all States who were sent the Constitution for Ratification will be considered to have accepted the Constitution and will be a part of the new government. No State may decline to join the new government.

• The national Military shall always be under civilian control.
• The national Military cannot be used against the Citizens in any way. The military is not allowed to take part in any Civil War. Their job is to protect us against foreign enemies. Any Civil War is to be fought between Citizens only.
• A military person who is injured during their service no matter how the injury occurs will be made as whole as possible – no matter the expense and no matter how long the payments must continue.
• The military retirement age is limited at sixty-five regardless of how many years in the Military.

The Departments are prohibited from rent-seeking and regulatory capture by special interest groups. Any Citizen has standing to sue a Department for these reasons. If these acts are proved in a court of law, the top five department officers will all be ejected from their offices and spend five years in jail. They are prohibited from working for any government forever.
The Departments are prohibited from issuing any regulations during the period known as the “lame-duck” session.
Nepotism must be banned and that means only one person from a family may be employed anywhere in the government. Absolutely no members of families can work for the National government if they have family members in Congress, SCOTUS, Military, Secretaries of Departments and more.
No government person may stay in one assignment for more than ten years.
The government is prohibited from establishing or recognizing a union for Federal employees.
The government is prohibited from allowing any union to sign contracts with the federal government.
No government person can have a career in the government greater than twenty-five years except the Military and the Judiciary. The Military shall have a career of 45 years. The Judiciary shall have a career of thirty-five years. In the case of the Military, they are required to retire at age 65, no matter the number of years in their career.
No government person may receive any benefit from the government after their employment is over other than a 401K or some similar individual savings plan. There will be no pensions, health care, secretarial help, secret service and more except as noted for the military and the President.
All testimony in court by any government person, employed or contract or volunteer, shall be made public in a short time except in cases of national security.
No government person shall receive more pay than a similar civilian job.
A governmental career is discouraged.
No government person can vacation on the taxpayers’ dime.
The President is limited to twenty-five days’ vacation per year just like most other experienced American workers. His budget for all expenses for all vacations in a year is to be one half of his annual salary.
Every government person must divest themselves completely of all stocks, investments, bonds and more except those contained in their 401K.
No subsidies may be given to transportation excepting roads. If it proves feasible, all roads will eventually be privatized.
The maximum number of government employees or contractors including military will be one federal employee or contractor per 200 Citizens.
There are nine federal Departments defined in this Constitution. Those federal departments are banned from having more than 10 sub-departments under them. No department or sub-department may do any of the tasks found in any other Department or sub-department. The idea is we are trying to eliminate unnecessary sub-departments as well as stop the duplication of effort in the government. If duplication of Departments is found to be true, those administrators that approved the duplication will be ejected from government immediately and never allowed to work for any government again.
Any Department that finds itself interpreting a law differently than another Department must immediately file a federal court case challenging the other Department’s interpretation. The Courts must take up the case within three days following the filing regardless of their schedule or case load. The case must be decided within two weeks of the acceptance of the case. The Court must also issue a stay on both Departments to implement either interpretation of the law until the case is decided. If the case goes to appeal, at each level no more than one week shall pass before judgement.
Any Citizen has standing to challenge mission creep within any part of the government.
Federal prosecutors are prohibited from carrying out lawfare. See the John Doe case against Governor Scott Walker and his associates. Citizens have standing to sue a prosecutor for this behavior. Should this behavior be proved in a court of law, the prosecutor and any other individuals found guilty will be given a sentence of ten years and never be allowed to work for any government ever again.
No employee or contractor of the National government shall be granted immunity for their acts.

The Federal Reserve is prohibited from doing any other actions other than to supply money to banks when they are in danger of failing. The Federal Reserve shall serve as a bank’s bank.
The Federal Reserve is prohibited from setting any interest rate except the interest rate of the money they loan to banks provided the rate is not less than 10% of the lowest available rate of interbank interest.
Any bank or institution that makes loans or sells bonds must keep a reserve of 20% cash on hand at all times.
The Federal Reserve is granted the power to temporarily raise the reserve by any amount needed in the event of a crisis. Congress has the power to order the Federal Reserve to remove the emergency reserve rate at any time.
The government shall not track bank transactions unless they will be used in a court case. There shall be no asset seizures from individuals or businesses without a proper indictment, trial, appeal and more.
The Federal Reserve nor the United States government may not use negative interest rates nor may they require Citizens to go cashless by ceasing to print money.
The End of the Constitution of the United States