Concurrent Resolution

Proposing substantive amendments to the Constitution for the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That each of the following articles, without the numbers and titles, are proposed as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when each is separately ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

1. Volume of legislation. The total size of all current statutes, measured in bytes of text, shall not exceed that as of 1900, and for any act which adds text, an equal quantity of text must be repealed. The total volume of all regulations shall not exceed six times that of all statutes. Congress shall not adopt more provisions per year than can be adequately heard and decided by United States courts within two years of enactment, and if more are adopted, courts shall have authority to summarily strike them.

2. Judicial appeals. At each level of appeal a case shall first be heard by a randomly selected panel of three, appealable to a randomly selected panel of nine, and thence appealable to either a randomly selected or en banc panel of twenty-seven, depending on the number of judges assigned to that court.

3. Rule of decision in judicial panels. Any multimember judicial panel must be unanimous to sustain a claimed power of government against the claim of a citizen that the government lacks such power. If there is any doubt concerning whether an official has a delegated power, the presumption shall be that he does not. Courts shall not defer to the judgment of legislative or executive officials, but shall require strict proof of their findings or authority, with a presumption of nonauthority.

4. Decision of jurisdiction. Any question of which court, national, state, or local, shall have jurisdiction, shall be decided by a grand jury of citizens selected at random, if possible, from outside the jurisdictions of the courts in contention.

5. Pollution. Congress shall have power to regulate or prohibit substances or actions which are likely to cause resource degradation or depletion or injury to people across state, territorial, or national borders, but not those confined within the borders of a state or territory.

6. Coastal waters and airspace. Congress shall have exclusive legislative jurisdiction over coastal waters from the low tide mark out to a distance of three miles, and over airspace at or above 1000 feet above terrain features, including the power to regulate the movement of vessels through such territory. States shall have jurisdiction for land above the low tide mark.

7. Broadcast bands. Congress shall have exclusive legislative jurisdiction over the allocation of broadcast bands for transmissions in excess of 1 watt.

8. In rem forfeitures forbidden. Any claim against a nonperson must specify an owner, even if it is initially an unknown owner, and the last possessor shall be presumed the owner unless title to another is proved. No asset shall be forfeited except to pay a lawful fine, imposed by verdict of a jury, by selling at public auction.

9. State secrets. Congress shall have power to punish for disclosure of state secrets properly so designated by a court of competent jurisdiction, but it shall also have power to punish the concealment of official misconduct under the guise of state secrecy.

10. Court opinions. Opinions of all courts, majority, concurring, or dissenting, shall be signed by each judicial officer participating, and all decisions and opinions shall be published except for state secrets. The summary, findings, orders, and commentary shall be clearly separated and labeled as such.

11. Recording of legal proceedings. Except in an emergency in which recording is impossible, all legislative, judicial, and administrative proceedings, other than trial jury and grand jury meetings, shall be recorded with current state of the art audio and video technologies, archived, and released as Congress, for federal proceedings, or a state legislature, for state proceedings, or a court of competent jurisdiction, shall direct. Persons present in a legislative conference or court shall not be barred from recording the proceedings except to forbid them from disclosing the members of the jury before the trial is concluded.

12. Supermajority for criminal penalties. Congress or a state legislature shall not enact legislation with criminal penalties without support by a vote of 94% of the members, not just of the members present and voting.

13. Proxy voting in legislative bodies elected by population. Members of the United States House of Representatives, and houses of state legislatures whose members represent political subdivisions that elect a number of representatives in proportion to their population, shall elect representatives at large, and the number of allocated representatives receiving the most votes shall be declared elected. Each such elected representative shall cast the number of votes he or she received in the last election in all proceedings of the house to which elected. Each candidate shall, prior to election, declare a list of successors if he or she becomes unable to serve, or is removed from office, who shall be appointed to replace him or her.

14. Selection of members of legislative bodies not elected by population. Members of the United States Senate, and houses of state legislatures whose members represent political subdivisions not based on population, shall be selected by a multi-stage nominating process that first randomly selects precinct panels of twenty-four, who then elect a person from each precinct, from among whom are randomly selected twenty-four persons for the next higher jurisdiction or district, and thus by alternating random selection and election to the next level, when they reach the top level, the number of randomly selected candidates shall be five, who shall be the nominees on the ballot for the final election by general voters, except that general voters may write-in other persons. Voters may vote for more than one nominee, using the method of approval voting. There must also be an alternative of "none of the above". The nominee receiving the most votes shall be declared elected, unless "none of the above" wins, in which case the position shall remain vacant.

15. Firearm exclusion zones. Congress shall have power, on territory under its exclusive jurisdiction, and state legislatures, on territory under their exclusive jurisdiction, to forbid weapons within penal facilities, courthouses, and government offices, provided that they provide for a secure system for checking in weapons on entry, and return on leaving, and guarantee the safety of persons within against all injury they might be able to avoid by having the means to defend themselves or others.

16. Weapons of mass destruction. Congress shall have power, on territory under its exclusive jurisdiction, and state legislatures, on territory under their exclusive jurisdiction, to forbid unsupervised possession of destructive devices or weapons each discharge of which can produce the death or injury of more than 1000 individuals over a space of 1000 square meters and a time of one hour.

17. Eminent domain. Congress shall have the power of eminent domain only on territory for which it has exclusive jurisdiction, and state legislatures only on exclusively state territory. State legislatures must consent to Congress taking by eminent domain any parcels within their territory. No taking by either Congress or a state legislature shall be for any purpose other than public use for a period of at least 20 years.

18. Legal tender. Congress shall have the power to define legal tender only on territory for which it has exclusive jurisdiction, and state legislatures only on exclusively state territory. Neither Congress nor the states may make anything legal tender that does not consist of, or is backed by, gold, silver, or energy, nor use anything but legal tender to pay its debts, or accept anything but legal tender for the payment of taxes.

19. Occupational licensing. There shall be no occupational licensing, formal or informal, national, state, or local, especially of lawyers by lawyers or judges.

20. Constitutional authority for legislation. No legislative act or provision thereof shall have the force of law unless the constitutional authority for it is explicitly cited, verifiable by proving an unbroken chain of logical derivation.

21. Violation of the Constitution. It shall be a capital offense for any official at any level of government to violate this Constitution.

22. Sunset of legislation. Every bill enacted by Congress shall expire two years after enactment, unless re-enacted, or unless it is constitutionally mandated.

23. Number of members of the House of Representatives. The number of members of the House of Representatives shall be two hundred eighty-five plus three times the number of states.

24. Selecting electors for president and vice-president. The electors for president and vice-president shall be selected in each state by the following procedure:

1. An initial panel of citizens qualified to vote in that state equal to one hundred times the number of electors to be selected from that state shall be selected at random, in a process that shall be supervised by a randomly-selected grand jury specially empaneled for that task;
2. Members of this initial panel shall take an examination in which each shall recite from memory 20 randomly selected clauses of this Constitution, and shall receive a score of one for each clause he or she is able to recite without error;
3. A second panel shall be selected from the first, consisting of ten times the number of electors to be selected, with the odds of selecting each weighted by the score he or she received in the examination, and with exclusion of any who scored zero;
4. Members of the second panel shall meet, and each shall rank all the others in descending order of civic virtue, giving a score indicating the rank consisting of the number of panelists for the highest down to one for the lowest;
5. The electors shall then be selected from this second panel at random, but weighted by his or her average rank from the previous round of peer assessments.

25. Aboriginal American rights. Treaties with aboriginal American tribes shall be honored, either with the original land taken from them being returned to them, land of equivalent value deeded to them, or money equal in current value to the land taken paid to them. Conveyance or payment shall be to a trust for each tribe controlled by that tribe. Administrative supervision of tribes shall be terminated.

26. Power to punish perjury. Perjury shall consist of the violation of any oath or affirmation, including that made for public office, and Congress shall have authority to criminally punish it only when made in a forum of the United States, or by an officer or agent of the United States.

27. Power to punish fraud. Congress shall have authority to criminally punish fraud only when committed on territory of the United States over which it has exclusive jurisdiction.

28. Certification of amendments. To be deemed ratified, the results of votes of the legislature or convention in each state shall be reviewed and verified by a vote of at least 18 of a randomly selected grand jury of 23 from citizens of that state who are not dependent on public funds for their support; and the reports of all such grand juries shall be reviewed and verified by a vote of at least 18 of a randomly selected grand jury of 23 from citizens of the United States who are not dependent on public funds for their support.

29. Certification of eligibility to hold office. To be deemed eligible the qualifications of any candidate shall be reviewed and verified by a vote of at least 18 of a randomly selected grand jury of 23 from citizens of the United States who are not dependent on public funds for their support.

30. Unfunded mandates, abuse of spending power. Congress may not require any state or local official, or private person, of the United States of America, to expend any resources without providing such resources, or make the provision of resources conditional on performing actions Congress does not have the power to command, except for militia organization, training, and operations, or for specific performance on a voluntary contract.