Constitutional Amendments Referenda Act of 2012


 * Constitutional Amendments Referenda Act of 2012
 * https://sites.google.com/site/amendmentact/

Please support these referenda for amendments to the United States Constitution by calling your senators and congressperson today and asking them to cosponsor this bill.

Short URL: j.mp/amendmentact


 * Contents

Bill text

Discussion

(1) Overturn Citizens United (2) Tax donations to super PACs at 99% (3) Eliminate gerrymandering (4) Prohibit political advertisements (5) Fund voting precincts in proportion to their population (6) Abolish the electoral college (7) Eliminate the first-past-the-post spoiler effect (8) Two bracket income tax only (9) Energy and climate security (10) Free reading tutoring systems (11) Single payer universal health care (12) End racism in criminal justice (13) Equal rights (14) Eliminate prohibition (15) Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (16) Abolish the death penalty (17) Abolish asset forfeiture except as approved by a jury (18) Abolish victimless crimes and blue laws (19) Limit restriction of the voting rights of criminals (20) Forbid interest on excess reserves

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 * A BILL

To amend chapter 20 of title 42, United States Code, to hold referenda to direct Congress to amend the Constitution to prevent unlimited anonymous foreign money contributions from influencing United States politics, and to otherwise insure electoral, financial, energy, climate, educational, and health security, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the Constitutional Amendments Referenda Act of 2012.

SECTION. 2. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT REFERENDA.

Chapter 20 of title 42, United States Code, is amended by inserting the following:

SUBCHAPTER III—CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT REFERENDA (§1974f).

1974f. All States shall include on the November, 2012 general election ballots the following separate referenda to mandate that each State's senators and congressional representatives shall be instructed and required to the fullest extent of the law to support, agendize, and immediately vote in favor of—and that each State's legislators shall be instructed and required to the fullest extent of the law to immediately ratify—amendments to the United States Constitution to immediately:

(1) Overturn the decision of the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) by amending the Constitution to include the following:

Section 1. To secure the independence of the legislature and executive, the Congress shall:

(a) publicly fund federal elections with at least the equivalent of the total amount spent in the election cycle when this article is ratified;

(b) limit any non-anonymized contributions to candidates for federal office to the equivalent of $100; and

(c) have the power to limit, but not ban, independent political expenditures within 90 days of an election, including but not limited to spending in support of, or in opposition to, a candidate for federal office.

Section 2. The First Amendment shall not be construed to limit legislation enacted pursuant to this article, except to assure neutrality of content and viewpoints. Neither shall the First Amendment be construed to limit the equivalent power of state or local legislation enacted to regulate state or local elections. Nor shall the First Amendment be construed to vest any unalienable constitutional rights in any non-natural person.

Section 3. The Congress shall establish an agency for federal elections to enforce the provisions of this article, whose principal officers shall be non-partisan commissioners who have served as federal judges at least ten years. The agency shall have standing to enforce this article in the federal courts, including in actions against Congress.

Section 4. The Congress may enforce the provisions of this article by legislation;

(2) Require that political contributions to super PACs be taxed at the rate of 99%;

(3) Require that all congressional districts be redrawn once in 2013 and after each subsequent census such that they are more compact and more contentious instead of safe for the major political parties, and such that there shall be minimal overlap between districts for State assemblies, State senates and Congress;

(4) Prohibit all political advertisements in accordance with the regulations in effect in Denmark at the time http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/258767/what-us-politicos-can-learn-from-denmark.thtml was written;

(5) Fund all voting precinct equipment, training, and staff in proportion to the population of those precincts in order to eliminate voters discouraged by long lines in poor neighborhoods;

(6) Abolish the electoral college and replace it with direct popular election by instant-runoff voting;

(7) Mandate that the single transferrable vote (such as instant-runoff voting for single seats) or contingent vote systems be required in all elections, unless such elections are to establish a numerical value, in which case the median value of the voters shall be required;

(8) Abolish all property and sales taxes, replacing them with income and capital gains taxation based on two brackets, where the bottom bracket shall be taxed at 0% and the top bracket shall be set by the Congress at a cusp and rate which shall balance the United States budget, except that a lower rate shall apply to capital gains from securities held more than five years;

(9) Forbid subsidy of fossil fuels, subsidize domestic and foreign renewable energy to the extent necessary to minimize total economic damage from extreme weather, and require the Secretary of Energy to commercialize the mass production of carbon neutral synthetic transportation fuel from carbonic acid in seawater;

(10) Require the Secretary of Education to provide reading tutoring systems based on pronunciation assessment using speech recognition for free to all on the internet by web and mobile device stand-alone systems;

(11) Establish a single-payer national universal health care system;

(12) Require that prosecutorial decisions to charge criminal defendants with crimes involving mandatory minimum sentences conform in proportion to the national population by race in aggregate—see e.g. http://newsone.com/1859475/black-people-receive-60-longer-sentences-for-same-crimes ;

(13) Provide that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex or sexual orientation;

(14) Abolish the prohibition of any drug which is not conclusively known to be more harmful than alcohol;

(15) Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its protocols without reservation;

(16) Abolish the death penalty;

(17) Abolish asset forfeiture, except as approved by a jury;

(18) Abolish victimless crimes, blue laws, and religious proscriptions;

(19) Forbid restriction of the voting rights of criminals unless they are incarcerated or escaped; and

(20) Abolish payment of interest on excess reserve balances.

SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This Act (including the amendments to the United States Code made by this Act) shall take effect upon enactment of this Act.

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Endorse an earlier draft of this call for referenda at: http://signon.org/sign/constitutional-amendments-3