Rick Perry has many ideas about how to change the American government's founding document. From ending lifetime tenure for federal judges to completely scrapping two whole amendments, the Constitution would see a major overhaul if the Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate had his druthers.
Perry laid out these proposed innovations to the founding document in his book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington. He has occasionally mentioned them on the campaign trail. Several of his ideas fall within the realm of mainstream conservative thinking today, but, as you will see, there are also a few surprises.
Seven ways Rick Perry wants to change the Constitution
3 comments:
Let's address these one by one:
"1. Abolish lifetime tenure for federal judges by amending Article III, Section I of the Constitution."
Now I am by no means an expert on the American legal system. But I believe that Governor Perry is not one either. Lifetime tenure for federal judges allows them to have an air of impartialness and fairness. In Federalist Paper No. 51, James Madison writes that by having lifetime tenure judges are able to "destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them" - in essence, they don't have to be completely loyal to the party and President that put them in their job since they can't be removed. Now, judges are people, and people do have natural inclinations. But judges are generally less radical and more stable than elected officials due to Common Law's reliance on the concept of precedence, and this is a good thing. Constant and stable laws equal freedom. Perry wants judges to go through some bizarre rolling process, which will lead to more opportunities to nominate judges, which will lead to more executives and legislator politicians interfering with the judiciary and threatening this stability and relative impartialness.
"2. Congress should have the power to override Supreme Court decisions with a two-thirds vote."
I find the fact that two of Perry's proposals are targeted at the judiciary interesting. For a starters, it indicates that this is not just simple political grandstanding - he actually believes this stuff. See, Texas itself falls under the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which is hardly a bastion of liberalism. 11 of the 16 members were appointed by Republican presidents - Reagan, HW Bush, and W Bush. And SCOTUS itself is relatively conservative. So this isn't short-term thinking. Perry has some serious problems with courts. His solutions are strange. In a republic, Hamilton writes that "the legislative authority necessarily predominates". The legislature is the voice of the people, after all. It is naturally powerful. And as a result it should not be given more power over the judiciary branch. Our founding fathers did a fine job of separating the judicial branch and the legislature and this should not be changed. Imagine if the outcomes of court cases could be overturned by politicians. This is not Sparta, but this would be madness.
"3. Scrap the federal income tax by repealing the Sixteenth Amendment."
Now it is not a closely guarded secret that I am not a huge fan of taxes or large government in general. But the government has to get money somehow. If not for income taxes, where else? I guess we can pawn off New Jersey or something. Or Texas. Cutting isn't a logical solution. I support restricting the government but the way to do that is to not go about cutting everything in sight in a short amount of time.
"4. End the direct election of senators by repealing the Seventeenth Amendment."
Ironic that Perry claims that those who supported the 17th were acting simply in "a fit of populist rage", considering that Perry himself is the reigning Mr. Texas in the Mister and Misses Populist America pageant. Anyways, of all of his suggestions, this is the least zaniest. I will probably have to gather a bit more information before I decide to agree or disagree with him.
Continued...
"5. Require the federal government to balance its budget every year."
I actually like the idea of a spending limit amendment. Several Republican legislators have indeed drafted one, which states that the federal government cannot spend more than the equivalent of 1/5th of America's economic output unless 2/3 of the legislature agrees to spend more or America goes to war. Repaying debt is separate from spending and thus is safe. While I am not quite a fan of the 1/5th number - it works in say, Hong Kong, but in a large nation we may need a larger fraction - but that matters little since this will not get ratified anyways. Some people may argue that deficit spending is necessary, but those are the people who think that throwing bricks at windows improves the economy (and yes, some Federalists themselves favored debt, but the economics of 1700s was very different). But I still place the likelihood of any such amendment being successfully ratified as low.
"6. The federal Constitution should define marriage as between one man and one woman in all 50 states."
Wow. Mister state power, secessionist, Perry wants the Federal Government to OVERRIDE the decisions of states such as New York and Iowa? That is bizarre. And that is why I don't identify with the GOP - it is hardly the party of small government. If two people of the same sex want to marry, they should be able to. Why is the government defining marriage anyways? People like Perry say that marriage is between a man and a woman because that is how it is in the Bible. But do we really want the Federal Government to define Bible verses? I think not.
"7. Abortion should be made illegal throughout the country."
I am opposed to late-term abortion, but other forms of abortion, while I do not like them, should be legal. I deeply dislike the concept of abortion and I think that it is killing a life, but that is a gut feeling and not a scientific or legal one. An early term fetus is less intelligent than a squirrel and we have no qualms with killing them (well at least non-hippies don't have qualms with killing them).
Perry is an interesting case. He has departed from the CONSTITUTION IS UNCHANGEABLE chants of the far right only to attempt to change the constitution in the American social rightwing's favor. I dislike politicians who dabble in social issues, and Governor Perry isn't dabbling, he is cannonballing into them. I am certainly not a supporter of Mr. Perry.
Spending Limit Amendment proposal:
http://mikepence.house.gov/images/stories/hensar_156_xml_3-1-10.pdf
Federalist 51:
http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm
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