Essay:Needed Constitutional Amendments (Meshakhad)

Anti-Discrimination

Discrimination on any basis is prohibited unless it can be shown that the quality in question is in fact relevant to the matter at hand.

Explanation: This simply cuts to the chase and prohibits all forms of baseless discrimination. Examples of relevant discrimination include ability to do a job. So you couldn't use this amendment to claim that an employer discriminated against you when they picked the candidate who wasn't a giant raging asshole, as being a giant raging asshole would disrupt the workplace.

Right To Health

All citizens have a right to good physical and mental health. Congress may pass legislation to ensure that all citizens have access to quality healthcare regardless of personal wealth.

Explanation: This would make providing healthcare a government obligation. Obamacare could almost certainly claim this amendment as justification.

Campaign Contributions

No citizen or organization may contribute money more than one one-hundredth of the President's annual salary to a single political campaign.

Explanation: This one nicely undoes Citizens United. The President's annual salary is currently $400,000/year, so this amendment would limit campaign contributions to $4,000. The reason for using the President's salary as a benchmark accounts for inflation - Congress will presumably raise or lower the President's salary as needed.

Amendment to the Second Amendment

Only members of an official state militia may own firearms. Such individuals must be at least eighteen years of age, show proficiency with the firearms in question, and meet reasonable physical and mental standards, including ability to judge when the use of force is and is not justified, to be determined by the state militias.

Explanation: This is designed primarily to give states a greater ability to restrict firearms, while still keeping to the spirit of the Second Amendment. An individual who is known to be overly aggressive might be deemed incapable of knowing when to use his weapon, and therefore refused membership in the state militia. These militias would be seperate from the National Guard, and no training or service beyond learning how to use a firearm would be required. In case of an invasion, it would make it easy for the state to quickly marshal everyone with a gun.

Term Limits For Legislators

Members of the Senate shall be limited to three terms of office. Members of the House of Representatives shall be limited to six terms of office.

Explanation: That's 18 years in the Senate and 12 in the House.

Eligibility For The Presidency

All previous eligibility requirements for the Presidency are abolished. New requirements are as such:

• Having been a citizen and resident of the United States for at least 14 years prior to the election.
• Not being in jail at the time of the election.

Explanation: I think that the American people should have a right to decide whether an individual being born abroad is a risk, or if being under 35 disqualifies them. Does anyone really think that Arnold Schwarzenegger would favor Austrian interests over our own? It would also render the entire Birther controversy redundant.

Election Amendment

All political parties shall hold state primaries to nominate their candidates for the Presidency. All primaries will take place on the successive Tuesdays between January 1st and June 30th of that year. The date for each state's primary will be announced on July 4 of the previous year, and will be determined randomly. The states are specifically barred from choosing the dates of their own presidential primaries. Any state that does this shall have its governor executed without trial.

All elections for public office will have a state (or, for the presidency, national) election 56 days prior to the final election. The top two vote-getters will appear on the ballot in the final election.

The Electoral College is hereby abolished. The President will be elected by a simple majority.

Explanation: This is a three-part amendment.

Part 1 randomizes the order of state primaries. New Hampshire and Iowa will lose their inordinate influence.

Part 2 makes primaries mandatory for all elections. For the presidency, it will prevent "spoilers" like Ross Perot in 1992, or Ralph Nader in 2000.

Part 3 abolishes the unnecessary electoral college.

Right to Vote

All adult citizens 18 or older who are not currently incarcerated for a crime have the right to vote. Using unlawful means to prevent a citizen from voting, or any attempt to tamper with the honest counting of these votes, shall constitute HIGH TREASON against the United States of America.

Explanation: This should seriously cut down on electoral fraud. As a sidenote, it also makes it risky to kidnap people in late October, as if you don't release them in time to vote, you could be charged with HIGH TREASON.