By Ben Jacobs
December 26, 2013
Although there have only been two constitutional amendments ratified since 1970 (one of which was originally submitted to the states in 1789 but wasn’t approved until 1992), legislators are still coming up with their own proposals to alter America’s founding document and add what would be the Constitution’s Twenty-Eighth Amendment.
Many of these proposals are often duplicative and tied to a news event.
At least a half dozen Democrats have introduced amendments to overturn Citizens Unitedthis year alone, and hordes of Republicans introduced amendments in the fall intended to prevent Congress from passing any law that doesn’t apply to itself, a measure targeting provisions of Obamacare that specifically dealt with legislators and their staffers. But those are boring and mundane—here are five that are a lot more exciting:
GIVE GUAM THE VOTE
There are over 4 million U.S. citizens who can’t vote for president. Residents of U.S. territories like Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not have electoral votes (let alone a voting member of Congress). H.J.Res.7 introduced by Delegate Donna Christian-Christiensen of the Virgin Islands would theoretically remedy this by enshrining into the Constitution the principle that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote in the election for President and Vice President shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of residency in a territory or commonwealth of the United States.” This amendment isn’t going anywhere in Congress but it doesn’t mean Guam will have no voice in deciding who the next president is. Territories participate in presidential primaries and elect delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions.
LET THE PRESIDENT HAVE UNLIMITED TERMS
So, don’t worry, getting rid of Prohibition was the Twenty-First Amendment. The Twenty-Second Amendment introduced term limits for the presidency. In the wake of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s unprecedented four terms, Congress decided to codify the traditional two-term maximum that presidents had served since George Washington. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) has introduced H.J.Res.15 to repeal the Twenty-Second Amendment and let presidents run for as many terms as they’d like. This is not Serrano’s first go-round with this amendment, which he has repeatedly introduced over the years with little success. But he’s not the only member of Congress to suggest this idea, which has been discussed, on and off, since the two-term limit came into effect in 1951. In 1995, Mitch McConnell introduced his own resolution to repeal the Twenty-Second Amendment in the Senate. He attracted only one co-sponsor, Harry Reid. Since then, the two senators have had less success finding common ground.