Texas Gov. Proposes 9 New Amendments To U.S. Constitution

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott proposed Friday a constitutional convention to create nine new amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would require a balanced budget, give more power back to the states and make it tougher for laws to be changed through the U.S. Supreme Court.

Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, two thirds of state legislators can call for a convention and propose an amendment to the constitution.

It has never happened in U.S. history, but the idea has been gaining steam among Republicans. Presidential candidate Marco Rubio proposed a constitutional convention in a USA Today editorial Wednesday. Republicans

The swell of interest in a convention comes as Republicans feel the federal government is overreaching into state and local politics, especially after June’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling making gay marriage the law of the land and President Obama’s executive action on gun control.

“The Supreme Court is a co-conspirator in the abandonment of the United States Constitution,” Abbott told the Texas Public Policy Foundation Policy Orientation in Austin Friday.

Here are Abbott’s proposed amendments:

• Prohibit Congress from regulating something that only happens in one state.
• Require Congress to “balance its budget.”
• Prohibit “administrative agencies” from creating federal law.
• Prohibit “administrative agencies” from preempting state law,
• Require a two-thirds majority of states to overrule a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
• Require a seven-justice majority for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidates an existing law.
• “Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.”
  
• Give state officials power to sue in federal court.
• Allow a two-thirds majority of states to override a federal law.

Image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons