Amending the US Constitution

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Philosophy Explorer
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Amending the US Constitution

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

What changes would you make to the Constitution?

The founders knew that the times can change and permitted the Constitution to be amended to adapt to changing circumstances. For me I would like to see an amendment allowing the President to be chosen by direct, majority popular vote instead of the electoral college.

How about you? What changes would you like to see made to the Constitution?

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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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PE: I think that would be the one amendment definitely worth having done. The Electoral College is a relic of the Founders distrust of American voters and it should be done away with. Especially since the college no longer serves its purpose ---- it was intended that the Electoral College members would vote according to their preferences, but almost every American thinks that they are supposed to vote consistently with the majority of the people from their respective states. That's completely backwards and not how the Founders set things up at all. So, it absolutely serves no good purpose these days, and just causes many voters to have their votes wiped out, as the states have arbitrarily set things up so that Electoral College votes are all assigned to the winner in the state, and not apportioned according to the percentage vote received in a particular state, which could be done consistent with the Constitution, but no state does it that way.
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Science Fan wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2018 5:20 pm PE: I think that would be the one amendment definitely worth having done. The Electoral College is a relic of the Founders distrust of American voters and it should be done away with. Especially since the college no longer serves its purpose ---- it was intended that the Electoral College members would vote according to their preferences, but almost every American thinks that they are supposed to vote consistently with the majority of the people from their respective states. That's completely backwards and not how the Founders set things up at all. So, it absolutely serves no good purpose these days, and just causes many voters to have their votes wiped out, as the states have arbitrarily set things up so that Electoral College votes are all assigned to the winner in the state, and not apportioned according to the percentage vote received in a particular state, which could be done consistent with the Constitution, but no state does it that way.
Another problem that would be lessened is gerrymandering which is an issue in Pennsylvania.

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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Yeah, that' true, at least when voting for President. State elections, however, would still be subject to manipulations.

I think as far as another Constitutional amendment goes, I would like to see term limits on people in Congress as well as federal judges and even justices on the Supreme Court. I have a definite problem with people holding powerful positions for long periods of time.
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Science Fan wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2018 9:42 pm Yeah, that' true, at least when voting for President. State elections, however, would still be subject to manipulations.

I think as far as another Constitutional amendment goes, I would like to see term limits on people in Congress as well as federal judges and even justices on the Supreme Court. I have a definite problem with people holding powerful positions for long periods of time.
That's why I said lessened instead of eliminated.

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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Gotcha!
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

Post by Sir-Sister-of-Suck »

Not really amending it, but something that comes to mind would be extending the reach of the 1st amendment to include more than just religious and political differences. There are a certain branch of people who think freedom of speech doesn't extend to things like violent or obscene movies and video games because it's not what the founding fathers intended to protect. While I don't necessarily disagree with that, I think creativity should be covered.
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Sir Sister makes an excellent point. Although the courts have given an expansive reading to the First Amendment, it would be a good idea to broaden it so we are no longer dependent on justices on the Supreme Court giving it a broad, as opposed to a more narrow interpretation. The comment also reminded me that the Supreme Court has added privacy rights as part of the Constitution, despite being unmentioned in the entire document, so it would also be along the same lines if we made an official amendment protecting privacy.
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Science Fan wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 5:48 pm Sir Sister makes an excellent point. Although the courts have given an expansive reading to the First Amendment, it would be a good idea to broaden it so we are no longer dependent on justices on the Supreme Court giving it a broad, as opposed to a more narrow interpretation. The comment also reminded me that the Supreme Court has added privacy rights as part of the Constitution, despite being unmentioned in the entire document, so it would also be along the same lines if we made an official amendment protecting privacy.
SF, I don't think broadening it would work as language and technology keeps changing. Since it's normal practice for the Supreme Court to enforce privacy rights, I don't see where an amendment would be needed.

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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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PE: The Supreme Court is presently protecting privacy rights, based on a claim that is quite flimsy. It is claiming that in the penumbra, or the shadow of the Constitution, privacy rights are supposed to be protected, despite there being absolutely no mention of this in the Constitution. So, it could be quite easily overturned in the future by justices who do not think it's a good idea to add language to the Constitution to create new constitutional rights. To prevent that from occurring, and it's a realistic possibility, amending the Constitution to add an actual right to privacy would be a good idea. The Supreme Court is not bound by any previous case decision.
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Science Fan wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:36 pm PE: The Supreme Court is presently protecting privacy rights, based on a claim that is quite flimsy. It is claiming that in the penumbra, or the shadow of the Constitution, privacy rights are supposed to be protected, despite there being absolutely no mention of this in the Constitution. So, it could be quite easily overturned in the future by justices who do not think it's a good idea to add language to the Constitution to create new constitutional rights. To prevent that from occurring, and it's a realistic possibility, amending the Constitution to add an actual right to privacy would be a good idea. The Supreme Court is not bound by any previous case decision.
I disagree a bit about there being no mention of privacy rights in the Constitution. In the Bill of Rights, amendment 4, it does say we have protection from unreasonable search and seizures.

I'm not opposed to a constitutional guarantee to privacy so I would support such an amendment.

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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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There is nothing in the Constitution regarding a right to privacy. Search and seizure issues do involve some aspects of privacy, but not in the sense that the Supreme Court created an actual Constitutional right to privacy. Besides which, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted for long periods at a time. For decades, following the "war on drugs," the Supreme Court basically flushed the Fourth Amendment down the toilet. To the point where a person could be arrested while driving, placed in handcuffs, then escorted to a patrol car, locked inside the patrol car, and an officer could still search the suspect's car, without a warrant, based solely on "officer safety" concerns, that there may have been a weapon in the car which the suspect could gain access to while being handcuffed and locked inside a police cruiser. It literally was the law of the land for over a decade. Now, do you really want your right to privacy based on the Supreme Court stretching the Fourth Amendment to provide such a right, as opposed to actually having such a right spelled out specifically? Even when it comes to specific rights, like the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Supreme Court has a record of ignoring the wording of the Constitution, in order to promote fashionable political ideologies, like a "war on drugs" allowing unlimited searches of vehicles.

Frankly, it would probably be a good idea to amend the Constitution to require justices not to be screwball idiots in rendering their decisions.
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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Science Fan wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:58 pm There is nothing in the Constitution regarding a right to privacy. Search and seizure issues do involve some aspects of privacy, but not in the sense that the Supreme Court created an actual Constitutional right to privacy. Besides which, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted for long periods at a time. For decades, following the "war on drugs," the Supreme Court basically flushed the Fourth Amendment down the toilet. To the point where a person could be arrested while driving, placed in handcuffs, then escorted to a patrol car, locked inside the patrol car, and an officer could still search the suspect's car, without a warrant, based solely on "officer safety" concerns, that there may have been a weapon in the car which the suspect could gain access to while being handcuffed and locked inside a police cruiser. It literally was the law of the land for over a decade. Now, do you really want your right to privacy based on the Supreme Court stretching the Fourth Amendment to provide such a right, as opposed to actually having such a right spelled out specifically? Even when it comes to specific rights, like the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Supreme Court has a record of ignoring the wording of the Constitution, in order to promote fashionable political ideologies, like a "war on drugs" allowing unlimited searches of vehicles.

Frankly, it would probably be a good idea to amend the Constitution to require justices not to be screwball idiots in rendering their decisions.
Don't think this will work either. I can't see an amendment requiring the justices keeping their noses out. Furthermore, to do their jobs, the justices must interpret the law to see if it's "constitutional" (and who else would be better suited to judge?)

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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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It could serve as a reminder that they have all too often resorted to political ideology in supposedly "interpreting" the law.
It seems that once a person is appointed as a Supreme Court Justice, they become convinced that they are now smarter than they were the day before they were confirmed. Most of the Justices on the Supreme Court are not that smart --- just politically connected. How many Justices were ever top trial attorneys?
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Re: Amending the US Constitution

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What I like most about the Constitution is it can be amended. The 18th amendment worked out to be an experiment (repealed by the 21st amendment). Therefore it can be improved upon over time because it's fluid (like science). Can there ever be a more effective document? I don't think so.

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