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Myth Busting: Amendments are only for fixing defects
| Myth The amendment process was only intended to fix defects in the Constitution. It was never meant to be a tool to control a federal government that had usurped its authority. Fact The founders did not intend for amendments just to fix defects. The founders also contemplated clarifying amendments. Exhibit A - the 11th Amendment One of the most powerful rebuttals to this argument is the 11th amendment. It didn’t grant, revoke or in any other way limit the power of the federal or state governments. The 11th amendment is what’s called a clarifying amendment. The nation so strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court opinion in Chisholm v Georgia, that we proposed and ratified the 11th amendment in less than 1 year. Amendments to counter federal usurpations The founders also understood the amendment process to be a force that the states could use to push back against an encroaching and even abusive federal government. Consider these remarks by James Madison. The “father of the Constitution” called the state-led amendment process the “final resort” under the Constitution against federal usurpations and abuses of power. > Should the provisions of the Constitution as here reviewed, be found not to secure the Government and rights of the States, against usurpations and abuses on the part of the United States, the final resort within the purview of the Constitution, lies in an amendment of the Constitution according to a process applicable by the States. > source: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=FOEA-print-02-02-02-2138 Hamilton agreed In Federalist 85, Hamilton agrees with Madison that the state-led process is an effective means of pushing back against a federal government that has abused its authority. > We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority Madison again > It has been asked whether every right has not its remedy, and what other remedy exists under the Govt. of the U. S. agst. usurpations of power, but a right in the States individually to annul and resist them. The plain answer is, that the remedy is the same under the government of the United States as under all other Govts. established & organized on free principles. The first remedy is in the checks provided among the constituted authorities; that failing the next is in the influence of the Ballot-boxes & Hustings; that again failing, the appeal lies to the power that made the Constitution, and can explain, amend, or remake it… > Source: http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/madison-the-writings-vol-9-1819-1836#Madison_1356-09_1704 George Mason George Mason had this to say about the amendment process at the Constitutional Convention > Amendments therefore will be necessary, and it will be better to provide for them, in an easy, regular and Constitutional way than to trust to chance and violence. It would be improper to require the consent of the Natl. Legislature, BECAUSE THEY MAY ABUSE THEIR POWER, and refuse their consent on that very account > Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_611.asp **< Back to every other argument** |
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| Created: | 2022-07-06 06:04 GMT |
| Updated: | 2024-07-16 08:37 GMT |
| Published: | 2023-07-07 05:00 GMT |
| Converted: | 2025-11-11 11:59 GMT |
| Change Author: | Brent Dunklau |
| Credit Author: | |
public/cb_mirror/myth_busting_amendments_are_only_for_fixing_defects_txt_blogposts_16153.txt · Last modified: 2025/11/11 11:59 by 127.0.0.1