Free Republic

SALEM—Governor Ralph Northam today announced amendments to Senate Bill 1716 and House Bill 2718, legislation passed by the General Assembly providing $151 million in dedicated funding for the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Plan. The amendments would ensure that the $2 billion program approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) in December 2018 is implemented, while also generating critical revenue for interstates across the Commonwealth. The amendments create equity in transportation funding by bringing Virginia’s truck registration fees, and diesel and road tax rates more in line with those of the other states along the 855-mile I-81 corridor. The funding mechanisms...

Left-wing pop icon Barbra Streisand laments the absence of a New Zealand-style gun ban in the U.S. and blames the “gun lobby” for failure to secure one.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Most Florida felons who have finished their sentences will be able to vote again in future elections. Voters on Tuesday approved Amendment 4, which says that most felons will automatically have their voting rights restored when they complete their sentences or go on probation. The amendment exempts those convicted of sex offenses and murder.

TALLAHASSEE When Floridians head to the ballot box in November, they will encounter a list of candidates asking for their vote for seats in the state House to the U.S. Senate. Among the choices they must make will also be one of the longest lists of proposed constitutional changes in decades, from betting on dog racing to implementing a ban on public officials lobbying for six years after they leave office. The 12 constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot are the most since 1998, when the state’s Constitution Revision Commission — which meets once every 20 years — put nine...

LAPORTE — Law enforcement in LaPorte County is preparing for the possibility of an already-congested and dangerous U.S. 20 being overrun with more semi-trucks as drivers avoid the 35 percent cost increase of traveling the Indiana Toll Road. Much of that stretch of highway being down to one lane in each direction for resurfacing adds to the concerns. LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd said he’s reached out to Indiana State Police to help patrol U.S. 20 if an increase in truck traffic becomes too much for his staff to handle alone. “We’re going to prepare for it,” Boyd said. “We’re...

First. That there be prefixed to the Constitution a declaration, that all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That 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. That 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. Secondly. That in article 1st, section 2,...

The first 10 changes to the Constitution were easy. Since then, it has been an uphill battle every time, and some of those battles are, at least technically, still undecided. We are speaking of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and those first 10 are, of course, better known as the Bill of Rights. They provide some of the most important guarantees of freedom associated with the U.S. Constitution — even though they were added years after the Constitution was first written in the summer of 1787. It wasn't that the framers of the Constitution didn't believe in freedom of...

The Third Amendment reads, “No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war except in a manner prescribed by law.” This Amendment, introduced by James Madison, was important to the Framers because of the callous way in which British troops would take over and loot personal residences during the Revolutionary war through Britain’s Quartering Acts. In The Making of America, W. Cleon Skousen writes how quartering of troops was among the “long train of abuses and usurpations” of King George listed in the Declaration of Independence....

The rapidly escalating tollway fines that have left some Texans owing thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars could be a thing of the past, based on an amendment that surprisingly found its way into a Texas Department of Transportation bill this week. But the impact to your pocketbook would depend on which tollway you’re driving. Under the amendment, a car owner who has driven on a tollway without paying — even hundreds of times — would owe at most $73 in fines every six months, plus the unpaid tolls. But that change, proposed by Rep. Ina Minjarez, D-San...

A spokeswoman for the House Freedom Caucus told Breitbart News the technical and Medicare-related changes to the RyanCare bill up for a House floor vote Thursday will not save the bill from defeat. “The amendments offered by Republican leadership do little to address the serious concerns of House conservatives,” said Alyssa Farah, the caucus communications director. “At this time, the bill does not have the votes to pass,” she said. “The Freedom Caucus will continue to work with House colleagues, the Senate, and the White House to find a path forward that works for the American people.” Speaker of the...

The Texas Senate, by a 20-11 vote, agreed Tuesday to a call for a Convention of States to consider amendments to the U.S. Constitution to rein in federal power and set federal term limits. The Senate also agreed to impose a state jail penalty on a legislator who violates his or her oath as a delegate to a potential national Convention of States, a measure intended to allay concerns about a runaway convention that might seek to amend the Constitution in ways not intended by the Legislature. Under Article V of the Constitution, two-thirds of the states can call for...

Do you know what today is? Saturday, September 17, is of course a very important and underappreciated occasion which I believe should be a national holiday -- Constitution Day, the anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. But it was on this date, September 14, that one of the most important provisions came into being, thanks to George Mason. It was Article V. "The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call...

MASON CITY, Iowa–Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz wants to add a number of amendments to the U.S. Constitution. He told reporters Friday at the Praise Community Church he would like to see amendments added pertaining to a balanced budget, term limits, and restoring power to state legislatures.“We need quite quite a few constitutional amendments,”Cruz said. "I will fight hard for a balanced budget amendment including also a term limits amendment. I think a term limits amendment is absolutely critical. If you look at the abuses of power we're seeing in Washington-term limits for members of Congress and the Supreme court."He...

Some terms and names are defined. Most are underlined use hover to check. All definitions obtained from additional Internet sources. This is yet another copy of the Amendments but displayed IMO in a form easier to read and understand. Using simple HTML code I've found that by spreading out the text I can better understand. That means displaying the exact text in outline form. The "real" meaning nowadays of course is in the Court decisions.

So, a couple days ago I received a letter in the mail from our SecState, explaining the proposed constitutional amendments that will be appearing on the Nov 3 ballot. Searching FR for 'Texas proposition' I got one hit for a single article about the 2014 proposed amendment. Throwing this up here to get some discussion from fellow Texans in time for the ballot here in a couple months. The letter adds some somewhat more normal English wording to explain each one, but that's a lot of typing (and a ton more formatting), so I just copied over the actual wording....

To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, when it becomes necessary for a people to alter a course of events deemed destructive to the preservation of liberty, any available legitimate means to accomplish this should be wholeheartedly embraced and pursued in all due earnest. The Constitution of the United States of America has been hollowed out. It is a dead letter. Even with its myriad of checks and balances the Constitution is not ultimately self-enforcing. But fortunately, the Founding Fathers in their great wisdom enabled “We the People” to reclaim our constitutionally secured rights in just such a situation as we...

Article V of the Constitution is to the body of the nation what the Second Amendment is to our persons; both enshrine the right to self-defense. Their enumeration in the Constitution isn’t actually necessary, for both rights are derived from nature and nature’s God, existing long before the Constitution. They are thus unalienable, meaning we could not give them away if we wanted to. Still, it is hard to not regard both as bequests, as invaluable gifts from our Framers to every subsequent generation of Americans. Having pursued and ultimately failed at peacefully settling their differences with George III and...

The nation's demagogues and constitutionally ignorant are using the Charleston, South Carolina, AME church shooting to attack the Second Amendment's "right of the people to keep and bear Arms." A couple of years ago, President Barack Obama said, "I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations." That's a vision shared by many Americans, namely that the Constitution's framers gave us the Second Amendment to protect our rights to go deer and duck hunting, do a bit of skeet shooting, and protect ourselves against criminals. That this vision is so widely...

Yesterday, conservative lawmakers pushed to attach key toll road reforms to two transportation bills in the Texas House, but they were thwarted by Speaker Joe Straus and his parliamentarian Chris Griesel who would not allow them to present their amendments. Griesel told them the amendments weren’t ‘germane’ (or salient) to the bills, HB 13 and HB 20, and blocked Rep. Jeff Leach and Rep. Jonathan Stickland from even laying out their amendments. Straus and Griesel utilized the same technique as they did on a Stickland amendment to the open carry bill the week before. The two decided to reject the...

As a Historian I always believe even a little history might help push back the darkness swirling around us It’s hard to be a conservative when there’s little left to conserve. The increasing pace of America’s progression from free markets to a command economy has reached such a pace and become so obvious that way back in 2009 the Russian Prime Minister used his spotlight time at the World Economic Forum to warn America not to follow the socialist path. The Russian newspaper Pravda,once the leading communist voice on earth published an article entitled, ‘American capitalism gone with a whimper’....