My own suggestion was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
Posted on 05/07/2015 4:44:12 AM PDT by cotton1706
Sen. Laura Ebke's proposal to enlist Nebraska in a call for a convention of the states to propose constitutional limits on the power of the federal government finally made it to the floor of the Legislature this week.
And Ebke has a long-shot idea of where it ought to be held.
"It should be in the middle of the country," she said Wednesday during an interview.
"I think Nebraska would be a great place," Ebke said. "We have an extra chamber."
The State Capitol was built with two legislative chambers to house both a Senate and a House; Nebraska moved to a one-house legislature in 1937.
Ebke's resolution (LR35), is a latecomer to the floor, arriving in the early evening hours of the 75th day of a crowded 90-day legislative session.
"I don't know if we'll get to it this year," Ebke said. "I'm not in a huge hurry. If it waits until next session, that's OK. It might get more time for debate that way."
Ebke, a political scientist who hails from Crete, believes the time has come to consider limitations on a federal government that began to expand its reach during the Great Depression.
"It became more powerful then and we never went back," she said. "The Founders never intended for it to be the all-powerful center of the universe."
The convention of the states would be limited to proposing constitutional amendments to impose fiscal restraints, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and require term limits.
(Excerpt) Read more at journalstar.com ...
Glad to see that the Convention of States resolution has become “unstuck” and has now moved to the floor (see below article).
Keep in mind that Nebraska is a Legislature = State deal. If it passes the legislature, it passes the state.
And also, having the Convention in an available chamber in the middle of the country is a very good idea!
Ping
:: the time has come to consider limitations on a federal government that began to expand its reach during the Great Depression. ::
They were just building on the federal usurpation of a States’ powers achieved in 1865. Without Lincoln gutting the 10th Amendment, they could not have built on such power.
Under the Constitution, Congress gets to set the time, place and duration of the Convention.
Thus I expect to see a one-day Convention held on Christmas Day in Nome, Alaska.
My own suggestion was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
The text says only that Congress calls it. It says nothing about Congressional limits on it.
-PJ
Check out Federalist 85.
Beautiful place....after fresh new corn is put up in the fall. In the summer evenings, the moths and other flying insects are unimaginable!
It will be a good education.
Some amendments we ought to propose:
Section 1 (The repeal). The sixteenth article of amendment to the United States constitution is hereby repealed.
Section 2 (No more income taxes). Congress shall make no law calculating taxes to be levied on American citizens based on personal income, corporate income, personal financial status, religious affiliation, gender, race, or any other classification; and, any such laws currently existing are hereby repealed.
Section 2a (No back door income taxes). Congress shall make no law taxing individuals and/or corporations for services those individuals and/or corporations provide; and, any such laws currently existing are hereby repealed.
Section 2b (No masking of penalties as taxes). Congress shall make no law taxing individuals and/or corporations for refusing to buy a service or product nor as a means of enforcement of any other federal directive; and, any such laws currently existing are hereby repealed.
Section 3 (Protection of the Fair Tax). Congress may create legislation to levy Retail Sales taxes, provided they are of a flat percentage of the taxed products retail prices, apply only to new products sold inside the United States or its territories, and in such a way as to ensure the same new product is not levied the same sales tax twice.
Section 4. (Indirect tax clarification). No tax imposed directly on individuals and/or corporations may ever be considered and indirect tax.
Section 5 (Protection of states’ rights). Congress shall make no law regulating intrastate commerce; and, any such laws currently existing are hereby repealed.
Section 5a (Protection of states’ class actions). Class action suites won by states may be enforced by whatever means are valid within those states constitutions. Nothing in this article of amendment is intended to, in any way, interfere with financial collection resulting from non-tax penalties determined in accordance with due process and the law, or assist with such.
Another:
Section 1. The Government of the United States shall not engage in any business, professional, commercial, financial or industrial enterprise except as specified in the Constitution.
Section 2. The constitution or laws of any State, or the laws of the United States shall not be subject to the terms of any foreign or domestic agreement which would abrogate this amendment.
Section 3. The activities of the United States Government which violate the intent and purpose of this amendment shall, within a period of three years from the date of the ratification of this amendment, be liquidated and the properties and facilities affected shall be sold.
Another:
The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.” (James Madison’s proposal for a Bill of Rights)
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.” (James Madison’s proposal for a Bill of Rights)
The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances.
Another:
The proportion of the House of Representatives shall be set so that no representative represents more than 100,000 people.
Yet another:
Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
The people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution.
The exceptions here or elsewhere in the Constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people, or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the Constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution.
No State shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases.
The powers delegated by this Constitution are appropriated to the departments to which they are respectively distributed: so that the Legislative Department shall never exercise the powers vested in the Executive or Judicial, nor the Executive exercise the powers vested in the Legislative or Judicial, nor the Judicial exercise the powers vested in the Legislative or Executive Departments.
The powers not delegated by this Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively.
And, of course, Levin’s Liberty Amendments:
An Amendment to Establish Term Limits for Members of Congress
SECTION 1: No person may serve more than twelve years as a member of Congress, whether such service is exclusively in the House or the Senate or combined in both Houses.
SECTION 2: Upon ratification of this Article, any incumbent member of Congress whose term exceeds the twelve-year limit shall complete the current term,but thereafter shall be ineligible for further service as a member of Congress.
An Amendment to Restore the Senate
SECTION 1: The Seventeenth Amendment is hereby repealed. All Senators shall be chosen by their statelegislatures as prescribed by Article I.
SECTION 2: This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
SECTION 3: When vacancies occur in the representation of any State in the Senate for more than ninety days the governor of the State shall appoint an individual to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term.
SECTION 4: A Senator may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the state legislature.
An Amendment to Establish Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices and Super-MajorityLegislative Override
SECTION 1: No person may serve as Chief Justice or Associate Justice of the Supreme Court for more than a combined total of twelve years.
SECTION 2: Immediately upon ratification of this Amendment, Congress will organize the justices of the Supreme Court as equally as possible into three classes, with the justices assigned to each class in reverse seniority order, with the most senior justices in the earliest classes. The terms of office for the justices in the First Class will expire at the end of the fourth Year following the ratification of this Amendment, the terms for the justices of the Second Class will expire at the end of the eighth Year, and of the Third Class at the end of the twelfth Year, so that one-third of the justices may be chosen every fourth Year.
SECTION 3: When a vacancy occurs in the Supreme Court, the President shall nominate a new justice who, with the approval of a majority of the Senate,shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term.Justices who fill a vacancy for longer than half of an unexpired term may not be renominated to a full term.
SECTION 4: Upon three-fifths vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress may override a majority opinion rendered by the Supreme Court.
SECTION 5: The Congressional override under SECTION 4 is not subject to a Presidential veto and shall not be the subject of litigation or review in any Federal or State court.
SECTION 6: Upon three-fifths vote of the several state legislatures, the States may override a majority opinion rendered by the Supreme Court.
SECTION 7: The States’ override under Section 6 shall not be the subject of litigation or review in any Federal or State court, or oversight or interference by Congress or the President.
SECTION 8: Congressional or State override authority under Sections 4 and 6 must be exercised no later than twenty-four months from the date of the Supreme Court rendering its majority opinion, after which date Congress and the States are prohibited from exercising the override.
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