Essay:Needed Constitutional Amendments (Kalmbach)
|
This essay is an original work by Kalmbach. It does not necessarily reflect the views expressed in RationalWiki's Mission Statement, but we welcome discussion of a broad range of ideas. Unless otherwise stated, this is original content, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 or any later version. See RationalWiki:Copyrights. Feel free to make comments on the talk page, which will probably be far more interesting, and might reflect a broader range of RationalWiki editors' thoughts. |
Political Donations[edit]
Proposed text--
Section 1: No money, service, or other thing of value shall be provided to, or in support of or in opposition to: any candidate for or holder of elected office; any political party, political action committee, or political organization; any proposed legislation, referendum, ballot initiative, regulation, or law; or for any other political purpose; except such as provided by natural persons who are citizens of the United States, or from non-profit organizations funded entirely by such persons, or as purchased for fair-market value.
Section 2: The Congress of the United States, and the legislatures of the several states, shall have the authority to pass legislation regulating such donations as they see fit and proper. No person, otherwise qualified, may be prohibited from making or receiving such donations, except as punishment for violating such regulations.
Section 3: It shall be the duty of any recipient of such donations to maintain a public record of them, and no donations may be made anonymously.
Section 4: The Congress shall implement this Amendment with appropriate legislation.
Justification--
Ever since the blatant act of judicial activism in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, it is clear that any attempt to enact campaign finance reform that will really stick will require the force of a Constitutional Amendment behind it, to prevent it from being nullified by partisan judges.