Constitutional Amendments With Cross ‐​Ideological Appeal?

Walter OlsonThe National Constitution Center recentlyconvened three ideological “teams” (libertarian,progressive, andconservative) to see whether they could come up with ideas for amending the constitution that might draw consensus support from all three teams. (If this idea sounds familiar, it ’s because the NCC last year convened three teams to think about how to bolster the guardrails of democracy; more on the resultshere.)This time the libertarian team consisted of Ilya Shapiro, Timothy Sandefur, and Christina Mulligan. The three teams managed to agree on five proposed constitutional amendments. Here ’s the rundown, with a few comments on how Cato has been involved in the conversation on each over the years:1) Eliminate the natural ‐​born citizenship requirement for the presidency. Cato scholarscommented on the requirement ’s relevance in the case of Ted Cruz (who, unlike former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, qualifies as is.)2) Give Congress the constitutional power to enact legislative vetoes to nullify executive and regulatory actions, as it had done in many laws until the Supreme Court struck down the practice in INS v. Chadha (1983). Regulation magazine featured some of the seminal coverage of the Chadha decision at the time, fromTheodore Olson,Michael Davidson, andJames C. Miller III.3) Alter the grounds for presidential impeachment and the numbers of votes needed. The first would be done by replacing “Treason, Bribery, or other high Cri...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 3, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Walter Olson Source Type: blogs