Purpose of the 28th Amendment
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1. Excepting primaries, election for all offices, propositions, or the like, submitted to Citizens of the United States shall take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.
The purpose here is twofold: One election a year is enough, and voter turnout is best. The greater the number of voters, the better expression you have of what ‘We the People’ think. These days, for general elections, we’re voting in the 60% range; not great, not terrible, could be better. However, elections outside the November date are poorly attended, and 20 some percent of voters in a Spring election is a farce.
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2. Excepting those exercising the authority of the United States, Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment or application of distinctions amongst or between Citizens of the United States.
Beyond the practical, the purpose here is to eliminate the practice of dividing the citizenry into categories or groups upon which laws, programs, or policies of favor and benefit are bestowed. As the law applies to every single one of us, there is no reason or excuse for distinctions made in the law. “The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens.”, so wrote Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan in his 1896 dissent to Plessy v. Ferguson, the ruling that cemented Jim Crow into the law.
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3. Congress, other than in time of Declared War or when passed with a majority of three quarters vote in each house, shall make no appropriation for expenditure that is not paid for by tax revenue collected during the term of that appropriation.
The purpose here is plain, unless it’s a war or an emergency, the government can’t spend money it doesn’t have. If Congress wants the money, it has to come directly to us, with the obvious consequences. Through History, countries and empires are either conquered or collapsed, most often a result of spending money they didn’t have.
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4. Congress shall make no law granting authority to create rules, regulations, or the like, and enforcement powers for same, to the Executive branch of this government.
The purpose here is to restore the whole, deliberate responsibility for lawmaking to Congress. That the laws to which we are subject be made by the representatives we elect. And thus directly responsible for what becomes the law. After all, the very first line of the Constitution’s Article 1 is, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States“.
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5. Congress shall make no law unless written, by hand, with attestation, by the member or members who submit same for consideration. Further, all such proposed laws, especially any providing for the “general welfare” or by Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18, shall in their preamble cite the specific power or powers expressed in this Constitution and by Article I, Section 8, Clauses 1-17, that legitimate their consideration.
The purpose here is twofold: First, writing by hand is work that requires greater concentration on the object proposed and the means of making that into law (and prevents 2000 page bills). If we are to obey the law, we must be able to read and comprehend the law. And the odds are better for getting that from one writing than by computer and the “interested community” committee. Also consider, it worked for the Nation’s first hundred years.
Second, and more importantly, that those matters considered for law, can only be, and be addressed by, the powers provided, or “granted herein”, as stated in the very first sentence of Article I of the Constitution. This is literally, as in written out, the meaning of the long bandied phrase, “Limited Government”. In telling the Federal Government what it’s powers and hence responsibilities are, it is made clear that everything else is “reserved to the States respectively or to the people.” (the 10th Amendment, 1791). “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” – James Madison, Federalist #45, 1787.
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6.Upon ratification of this amendment, and within the next two years, a committee comprised of four members of Congress and four members of the Supreme Court shall review the United States Code to identify and report all laws not in compliance with the provisions of the second and fourth clauses, and the second sentence of the fifth clause of this Amendment. Whereupon Congress shall have the immediately following four Sessions to revise, replace, or rescind those laws. At the end of the fourth session, those laws so attended but not signed by the President, and those laws not afforded such attention, shall be null and void, and struck from the United States Code.
The purpose here is ‘cleaning house’. There are numerous laws on the books that are contrary to the direction of the Constitution and made evident with this amendment. This serves to ensure that the law will not be in contention with the ideal and design of Individual Responsibility and Limited Government as envisioned and established by the Founders of this Republic.
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Lord Acton’s old maxim, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely“, can be seen in the parade of our modern age. Proving again, that Power and politics are dangerous. The purpose of this amendment is to put Power back in its Constitutionally created harness. So that not only will we be able to say again, with confidence, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”, we will accomplish exactly that.
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