26 September 2019

A Rebalancing Agenda

How do we solve the systemic and entrenched flaws of our political system which gives it a built in conservative bias?

This is an agenda of actions which Congress may be law take, without constitutional amendments. This could be accomplished with majorities in the House and the Senate and a cooperative President.

Admit More States To The Union

* Admit the District of Columbia to the U.S. as a state except for the immediate vicinity of the capitol and a reliably Democratic neighborhood or two adjacent to it with 50,000 to 100,000 people that would retain D.C.'s three electoral votes for President under the 23rd Amendment to the United States Constitution that would lack Congressional representation.

* Admit Puerto Rico to the U.S. as a state if it votes for that in a referendum in which the only other choice is to become an independent country and Commonwealth status is not an option.

* Admit the U.S. Virgin Islands to the U.S. as a state.

* Admit Guam and the Northern Mariana Island (combined) to the U.S. as a single state with two local governments.

* Admit American Samoa to the U.S. as a state.

* Authorize California to form two to four successor states from its territory as proposed by legislation or a citizens initiative.

This would add 12-14 U.S. Senators to the U.S. Senate, mostly like all of them Democrats. It would add nine or ten members of Congress from the newly admitted states other than California to the U.S. House, most of whom would be Democrats.

This would also dramatically reduce the number of Americans who are nationals but not U.S. citizens and who lack representation in Congress.

Increase The Size Of The U.S. Supreme Court

* Increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 to 15 justices.

* Appoint six liberal justices to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancies, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court with a 10-5 liberal majority.

* Establish as a default that cases in the U.S. Supreme Court are heard by a panel of five justices subject to en banc review by the entire U.S. Supreme Court, except in cases in which the constitutionality of a statute is not at issue, and require two justices to grant temporary orders in requests for stays of orders from lower courts rather than one in the current system.

Repeal Non-Democratic Rules In The U.S. Senate

* Repeal all powers of individual U.S. Senators under U.S. Senate rules, including members of the leadership, to deny consideration of matters pending before the U.S. Senate, such as "holds."

* Require consideration by the U.S. Senate as a whole of Presidential nominations and bills passed by the U.S. House within a certain reasonable time period (perhaps three or four months).

Removal Of Presidents For Incapacity

* Pass a law pursuant to Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution to vest authority to determine that the President is incapacitated on a body other than the Vice President and the cabinet.

Faithful Execution Of The Laws 

* Establish a private cause of action with the minimal constitutionally permitted standing requirements for enforcement by writ of mandamus of the failure of the President "to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" as set forth in Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.

Reduce The Number Of Political Appointees

* Transfer many of the roughly two thousand federal government jobs that are political appointments to the federal civil service system.

Emoluments

* Create a private civil action to force enforcement of the prohibition on receipt of emoluments from the President, under Section 1 of Article II of the U.S. Constitution, and members of Congress, under Section 6 of Article I of the U.S. Constitution. This should include a ban on conduct of any kind of private business or investment activity that is not put in a regulated blind trust.

Election Law

* Prohibit voter ID laws by statute under the enforcement powers granted by the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

* Limit gerrymandering and authorize proportional representation in Congressional elections, by statute, under the power granted by Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, the enforcement powers granted by the 14th and 15th Amendments.

Narrow The Scope Of Federal Court Civil Jurisdiction

The federal courts now and for the foreseeable future has a core of far right judges. One way to reduce their influence is by narrowing the scope of federal court civil jurisdiction.

* Repeal 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 (general federal question jurisdiction) and 1332 (diversity jurisdiction). 

Therefore, federal district court civil jurisdiction would be limited to select federal questions with specific authorizing statutes (like intellectual property and civil rights cases), appellate review of other federal questions by the U.S. Supreme Court, cases with the United States as a party, and diversity cases involving interpleader, certain class actions and real estate claims involving rights arising from two different states. Suits between private parties, even if arising under most federal laws, would not be subject to removal to federal court.

Repeal Offenses Currently Triable As Federal Crime

* Repeal the lowest level and most common illegal immigration crimes (e.g. unlawful entry) which would instead be only a civil offense.

* Repeal federal crimes that are duplicative of state crimes, such as kidnapping, bank robbery, child pornography, marijuana offenses, drug offenses that do not involve transportation of drugs across state or national boundaries, and many forms of homicide that have tangential federal connections.

Transfer Responsibility From Federal Court To Tribal Court For Certain Crimes

* Give tribal courts jurisdiction over felonies committed in tribal territory and provide funding for prosecutors, public defenders, and the courts to allow tribal courts to meet federal standards of due process in those proceedings. These cases are now tried in the federal courts which have consistently done a poor job of handling them.

Transfer Some Administrative Law Functions To Article III Courts

While the federal courts have many far right judges they are still far superior to the quality of justice found in some administrative law courts. This also would make use of resources freed up by narrowing federal court civil and criminal jurisdiction.

* Transfer jurisdiction over immigration cases to the federal courts and abolish the immigration court system. Establish a statutory right to counsel for indigents and minors in all immigration cases.

* Transfer jurisdiction over campaign finance violations from the Federal Election Commission to the federal courts, with actions that can be brought by both the Justice Department and with private civil actions.

11 comments:

neo said...

Prohibit voter ID laws by statute under the enforcement powers granted by the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

i don't understand why "liberals" are against voter ID laws.

are requiring ID to buy alcohol or cigarettes also unconstitutional?

neo said...


Increase The Size Of The U.S. Supreme Court

* Increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 to 15 justices.

* Appoint six liberal justices to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancies, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court with a 10

would you object to republicans increasing the size U.S. Supreme Court from 15 justices to 31,

and appoint 16 conservative justices to re balance it as they see fit?

or, even Increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 to 15 justices and Appoint six conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancies?

andrew said...

"i don't understand why "liberals" are against voter ID laws."

Because the disenfranchise people who don't have ID (a surprisingly large share of the poor, especially the non-white poor), and because they disenfranchise a lot of people who changed their names upon marriage. Frequently, these laws require proof of citizenship which means birth certificates or passports, and lots of people don't have passports and a lots of women (and a tiny share of men) don't have birth certificates that match their current names or can't easily get a birth certificate without spending money. Also, voter ID laws can function as a poll tax.

The case of a state shutting down DMVs in minority neighborhoods coincident with the introduction of voter ID laws is a good example that illustrates the motive behind these laws, which are often used to disenfranchise people who have voted consistently for decades.

Also, voter ID laws impair turnout enhancing tools like online voter registration and mail in ballots.

andrew said...

Court staking is not the ideal solution, but it is the only practical one that can be achieved without a constitutional amendment.

FWIW, most civil law countries have scores or even more than a hundreds supreme court justices and operate in a manner a bit like the one that I propose, but with subject matter divisions so that specialist experts make the calls.

Those countries generally don't have politically appointed judges, however, except for a separate constitutional court.

neo said...


@andrew

would you object to use of photo ID to buying alcohol or tobacco?

my college, the large lecture ones where there are hundreds of students, not small classes, required students to present their student id to prevent other students from sitting in and taking exams.

do you object to this as well?


the issues you raise can be addressed through motor vehicle voter registration.

i think a driver's license is adequate form of picture ID.

neo said...

@andrew said...

Court staking is not the ideal solution, but it is the only practical one that can be achieved without a constitutional amendment.


isn't the supreme court currently balanced 5-4

would you be okay of conservatives completely agree with your recommendation but instead stacked it by adding more conservative justices?

it's too late now but i actually favor an amendment term limits on everyone from supreme court to congress, i know it's not gonna happen congress would never approve, perhaps the states could call a constitution convention

andrew said...

A constitutional convention would be pandora's box and quite likely would do more harm than good. It probably was a bad idea to put in the constitution in the first place.

I am devising a strictly partisan strategy that could be achieved quickly to change the political balance.

The Supreme Court isn't currently balanced, because the 4 person liberal minority represents about 60% of the the center-left political spectrum, the four most right leaning judges represent maybe 10% of the political spectrum, and there is one swing judge representing the 30% between them and he's very much at the conservative end of that spectrum. We no longer have a center-right Justice like Antony Kennedy or Sandra Day O'Connor or a center left justice like Justice Souter, holding a swing position as we did for decades. A tiny ideological far right faction shouldn't control 4 out of 9 seats. That's dangerous.

andrew said...

"would you object to use of photo ID to buying alcohol or tobacco?"

It is stupid to require photo ID for 40 year olds or 60 year olds. The 21 year old drinking age is also bad policy. But, alcohol and tobacco are policies that don't influence how new policies are made. They aren't fundamental right.

"my college, the large lecture ones where there are hundreds of students, not small classes, required students to present their student id to prevent other students from sitting in and taking exams. do you object to this as well?"

The issue is one that primarily affects the very poor, which college students are not. Few college students have name change issues and they don't have to prove citizenship either, so it isn't an issue in anything like the same way as it is for voting.

"the issues you raise can be addressed through motor vehicle voter registration. i think a driver's license is adequate form of picture ID."

Lots of people, especially very poor people, don't drive and don't have state IDs either. Driver's licenses in most states don't prove citizenship so many voter ID laws don't accept them as sufficient. Also, it doesn't solve the online registration and mail in ballot issue.

andrew said...

Lots of prior post here get into details and the weeds on voter ID as it works in real life: https://washparkprophet.blogspot.com/search?q=Voter+ID

neo said...

'The Supreme Court isn't currently balanced, because the 4 person liberal minority represents about 60% of the the center-left political spectrum, the four most right leaning judges represent maybe 10% of the political spectrum, and there is one swing judge representing the 30% between them and he's very much at the conservative end of that spectrum. We no longer have a center-right Justice like Antony Kennedy or Sandra Day O'Connor or a center left justice like Justice Souter, holding a swing position as we did for decades. A tiny ideological far right faction shouldn't control 4 out of 9 seats. That's dangerous. "


do you have a reference for these claims?
where did you get these #'s?

if this tiny "far right" faction as you call it interprets the constitution as written, what's the problem?

and well if hillary won she would have appointed 2 far left judges and skewed the court far left, 2 far left plus the 4 is 6.

neo said...

andrew

without some sort of photo id showing identity, such as a passport or driver's ID, what assurances do we have for voter fraud?

ever been to a doctor or pick up a prescription?

i was asked to provide photo ID, as well as getting a library card.

of course they card for underage drinkers at college bars.

if you think it's somehow "discriminatory" to require photo id for voting, do you feel the same way for every other instance in which a photo ID is requested?