| |
| |
|
|
A JOINT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
applying to Congress to call a convention, to propose an amendment |
|
|
to the United States Constitution urging the restoration of free |
|
|
and fair elections. |
|
|
WHEREAS, Our first president of the United States, George |
|
|
Washington, declared: "The basis of our political systems is the |
|
|
right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of |
|
|
government" (Farewell Address, 1796); and |
|
|
WHEREAS, It was the clear intention of the framers of the |
|
|
Constitution of the United States that the Congress of the United |
|
|
States should be "dependent on the people alone" (James Madison, |
|
|
Federalist No. 52) and that dependency has evolved from a |
|
|
dependency on the people alone to a dependency on those who |
|
|
contribute lavishly and spend excessively in election campaigns or |
|
|
via third-party groups; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the United States |
|
|
Constitution declares: "The powers not delegated to the United |
|
|
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are |
|
|
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," which, |
|
|
until 2010, had consistently been interpreted as allowing the |
|
|
several states to establish their own laws governing the financing |
|
|
of elections; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Since 1905, with the passage of the Terrell Election |
|
|
Law and continuing for the next 105 years, the Texas Legislature has |
|
|
consistently exercised its legal authority to mitigate corrupting |
|
|
influences in its electoral process by establishing laws governing |
|
|
the financing of elections; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court removed |
|
|
restrictions on independent and aggregate spending, effectively |
|
|
denying the several states the ability to establish their own laws |
|
|
governing the financing of elections and the removal of those |
|
|
restrictions has resulted in the undue influence of powerful |
|
|
economic forces, which have supplanted the will of the people by |
|
|
undermining their ability to choose their political leadership and |
|
|
determine the fate of their states and the nation as a whole; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution included |
|
|
the convention method of proposing federal constitutional |
|
|
amendments at the urging of the delegates to the 1787 |
|
|
Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia, so that the |
|
|
several states could protect themselves, and their citizens, from |
|
|
encroachments of the federal government and preserve our Republic |
|
|
in the event that the federal government became unresponsive to the |
|
|
will of the American people; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The nation's 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, |
|
|
affirmed: "Through their state legislatures and without regard to |
|
|
the federal government, the people can demand a convention to |
|
|
propose amendments that can and will reverse any trends they see as |
|
|
fatal to true representative government."; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution requires |
|
|
Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments to the |
|
|
constitution on the application of two-thirds of the legislatures |
|
|
of the several states, an assurance made abundantly clear by |
|
|
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 85, who noted that: "The words |
|
|
of this article are peremptory. The Congress 'shall call a |
|
|
convention.' Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion |
|
|
of that body. And of consequence, all the declamation about the |
|
|
disinclination to a change vanishes in air."; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The legislature perceives the need for an amendments |
|
|
convention in order to restore free and fair elections in America by |
|
|
reducing the corrupting influence of money in politics and desires |
|
|
that said convention be so limited; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The 84th Texas Legislature intends that this joint |
|
|
resolution be a continuing application aggregated together with |
|
|
similar applications calling for a convention on this subject, such |
|
|
as those approved by Vermont legislators (2014 Vermont R454, Joint |
|
|
Resolution Senate No. 27, 160 Congressional Record S4331, |
|
|
POM-284), by California legislators (2014 California Resolution |
|
|
Chapter 77, Assembly Joint Resolution No. 1, 160 Congressional |
|
|
Record S5507, POM-320) and by Illinois legislators (2014 Illinois |
|
|
Senate Joint Resolution No. 42) and introduced by Montana |
|
|
legislators in 2015 (House Joint Resolution No. 3), until such time |
|
|
as the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states have |
|
|
applied for such a convention and that convention has actually been |
|
|
called by Congress; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas delegates to said convention be |
|
|
composed equally of individuals currently elected to state and |
|
|
local office, or be selected by election, in each congressional |
|
|
district in Texas, for the purpose of serving as Texas delegates, |
|
|
though all individuals elected or appointed to federal office now, |
|
|
or in the past, be prohibited from serving as Texas delegates to |
|
|
such a convention; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the legislature intends to retain the ability |
|
|
to restrict or expand the authority of its Texas delegates within |
|
|
the limits herein expressed; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 84th Texas Legislature apply to Congress |
|
|
to call a convention under Article V of the United States |
|
|
Constitution for the limited purpose of proposing an amendment to |
|
|
the constitution to urge the restoration of free and fair |
|
|
elections; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That, unless rescinded by a succeeding |
|
|
legislature, this application by the 84th Texas Legislature |
|
|
constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V |
|
|
of the United States Constitution until at least two-thirds of the |
|
|
legislatures of the several states have applied to Congress to call |
|
|
a convention for the limited purpose of proposing an amendment to |
|
|
the constitution to urge the restoration of free and fair |
|
|
elections; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
|
|
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
|
|
the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the |
|
|
Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of |
|
|
the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this |
|
|
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as an |
|
|
application to Congress for a convention under Article V of the |
|
|
United States Constitution for the limited purpose of proposing an |
|
|
amendment to the constitution to urge the restoration of free and |
|
|
fair elections; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
|
|
copies of this resolution to the secretaries of state and to the |
|
|
presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states with |
|
|
the request that they join this state in applying to Congress for a |
|
|
convention under Article V of the United States Constitution for |
|
|
the limited purpose of proposing an amendment to the constitution |
|
|
to urge the restoration of free and fair elections. |