Saturday, December 24, 2011
How to Recall US Senators and Congressmen
Below is a list of the senators and congressmen who voted to sell us and our American rights down the river as if we had never been born with them. The right to recall federal officials is firmly established by the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as a power "not prohibited" by the Constitution and therefore "reserved to the states" and "to the people." As proponents of limited government, the Constitution was to be viewed as a straitjacket on the government, outlining limited powers, not a straitjacket on the people, whose rights only ended where they began to infringe on the rights of others. The Tenth Amendment states:
SENATE: YEAs ---86
HOUSE: AYES 283 --
Do not let any state legislator tell you that you cannot recall senators or congressmen. Only two state courts have decided this, Idaho and New Jersey, which do not apply to other states. In both cases the reasoning was weak and specious. The Idaho court said that the law was unconstitutional because it would constitute a new "qualification" for office in addition to age, residency and inhabitancy, the existing stated qualifications in the U.S. Constitution. This reasoning is weak and a poor crutch for other states.
In NJ Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote "The court finds that ... the federal Constitution does not allow states the power to recall U.S. senators." This is odd because in fact the Constitution explicitly allows, by not disallowing("prohibiting" in the Tenth Amendment,) the states the power to recall US senators and congressmen.
The Constitutional includes provisions for the expulsion of a member from either House by a vote of other members. It would be absurd to conclude that the Founders, who reserved all rights to the people including the right to "abolish" the government, and who held that all governance was only by "consent of the governed," intended for congressmen to be more responsible to their colleagues than to the people they represent. If members of the Congress can expel members, their own constituents certainly can, given properly constructed recall laws.
"Properly constructed" should be taken to mean of gravity and import. Being a member of Congress should not be a popularity contest. But when it comes to questions of Constitutional import, these are questions which properly revert back to the people and the states. These are questions to be resolved in properly designed recall legislation.
18 states presently have recall laws: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. In some of these states federal officials are excluded, but not in others. States without recall laws would need them passed in the state legislatures, which boils down to lobbying state representatives and senators hard.
State representative and assembly districts are small and can be run for easily by ordinary citizens with little money. They are a tiny fraction of the size of a congressional district and can be door-knocked in a few months. State senators and representatives seeing challenges coming over their stand on the federal recall issue are more likely to get on the side of the people.
Almost as importantly, active recall drives and drives to pass new recall laws over the NDAA's indefinite military detention of American citizens keeps the issue in the fore. This vital since most people still are unaware of what is taking place. This will require a long-term, voter to voter education campaign for which recall can serve as the vehicle. "Why would you want to recall old Senator So-and-So?" - your neighbors will ask. Wait until they find out.
Here is one possible model recall law to present to your state representatives, just change the name of the state it is will serve as a first draft.
[MODEL RECALL LAW, ARIZONA CONSTITUTION ARTICLE 8.]
Here is an excellent link to state house contacts and your state representatives:
http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=17173
Be sure to study this short history of the federal recall, written by an attorney, as well as the other links here, so you can be ready to knock down your state representative's arguments that senators and congressmen cannot be recalled: "Recalling US Senators and Congressmen."
Finally don't forget to join the Facebook "Recall Every Congressman Who Voted for the NDAA" The Internet will be a powerful tool for different states to communicate with each other and share information and advice.
Power now reverts back to the states, since the federal government has egregiously violated and sought to overturn our "unalienable rights," and we must call on our state legislators, who are closest to us, to recall our federal representatives from Washington who voted for this.
A Longer View
Taking the longer view of a nationwide wave of recall drives against politicians who have broken their oath to "protect and defend the Constitution," these are vital to show that the American people will not let this stand and will fight to reclaim our birthrights as Americans in a peaceful and democratic way. What the congress and the president have done constitutes nothing less than a threat to us and our families, by declaring the authority for what amounts to kidnap, torture, and execution without trial or due process. We are taking this threat seriously.
But the government's over-reach into our sacred rights might also finally bring us, at long last, to that national re-examination so long overdue since 9/11, which started the train of federal government usurpation of basic rights in the name of "security." For although George W. Bush declared that the terrorists "hated us for our freedoms," it was never Al Qaeda which took a vote on the Senate floor to abolish the Bill of Rights, but our very own "domestic enemies" of the Constitution.
That the breath-taking power grab takes place just as a fresh awakening has occurred, taking aim at the corrupting influence of money in our political system, cannot be ignored. The monied powers which rob the taxpayers of trillions in bailouts for irresponsible business practices have been challenged by Occupy Wall Street. The connection between this challenge and the attempted usurpation of our rights is hard to know.
Recall drives against a good number of federal elected officials, based on clearly righteous grounds, might open the way to a new responsiveness in our ossified institutions, by shadowing incumbents at re-election time, encouraging resignations, or, perhaps even, prompting the lawmakers themselves to mend their ways, and become true advocates for their constituents rather than for the bags of money which prowl their halls. It is truly a shame that many of these politicians who had noble entrances into political life, as reformers and mavericks, now conclude these careers as the worst traitors to their sworn oaths that the nation has ever seen.
"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."The Treasonous 383
SENATE: YEAs ---86
HOUSE: AYES 283 --
Do not let any state legislator tell you that you cannot recall senators or congressmen. Only two state courts have decided this, Idaho and New Jersey, which do not apply to other states. In both cases the reasoning was weak and specious. The Idaho court said that the law was unconstitutional because it would constitute a new "qualification" for office in addition to age, residency and inhabitancy, the existing stated qualifications in the U.S. Constitution. This reasoning is weak and a poor crutch for other states.
In NJ Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote "The court finds that ... the federal Constitution does not allow states the power to recall U.S. senators." This is odd because in fact the Constitution explicitly allows, by not disallowing("prohibiting" in the Tenth Amendment,) the states the power to recall US senators and congressmen.
"The powers not...prohibited...are reserved to the States...or to the people."The states' right to recall is even more firmly anchored in the document antecedent to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, which states:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it... -- Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776."The Supreme Court declared in 1897:
The Constitution is the body and letter of which the Declaration of Independence is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.
The Constitution itself connects itself to the Declaration of Independence by dating itself from the date of the Declaration of Independence, thereby showing clearly that it is the second great document in the government of these United States and is not to be understood without the first.
The Constitutional includes provisions for the expulsion of a member from either House by a vote of other members. It would be absurd to conclude that the Founders, who reserved all rights to the people including the right to "abolish" the government, and who held that all governance was only by "consent of the governed," intended for congressmen to be more responsible to their colleagues than to the people they represent. If members of the Congress can expel members, their own constituents certainly can, given properly constructed recall laws.
"Properly constructed" should be taken to mean of gravity and import. Being a member of Congress should not be a popularity contest. But when it comes to questions of Constitutional import, these are questions which properly revert back to the people and the states. These are questions to be resolved in properly designed recall legislation.
18 states presently have recall laws: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. In some of these states federal officials are excluded, but not in others. States without recall laws would need them passed in the state legislatures, which boils down to lobbying state representatives and senators hard.
State representative and assembly districts are small and can be run for easily by ordinary citizens with little money. They are a tiny fraction of the size of a congressional district and can be door-knocked in a few months. State senators and representatives seeing challenges coming over their stand on the federal recall issue are more likely to get on the side of the people.
Almost as importantly, active recall drives and drives to pass new recall laws over the NDAA's indefinite military detention of American citizens keeps the issue in the fore. This vital since most people still are unaware of what is taking place. This will require a long-term, voter to voter education campaign for which recall can serve as the vehicle. "Why would you want to recall old Senator So-and-So?" - your neighbors will ask. Wait until they find out.
Here is one possible model recall law to present to your state representatives, just change the name of the state it is will serve as a first draft.
[MODEL RECALL LAW, ARIZONA CONSTITUTION ARTICLE 8.]
Here is an excellent link to state house contacts and your state representatives:
http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=17173
Be sure to study this short history of the federal recall, written by an attorney, as well as the other links here, so you can be ready to knock down your state representative's arguments that senators and congressmen cannot be recalled: "Recalling US Senators and Congressmen."
Finally don't forget to join the Facebook "Recall Every Congressman Who Voted for the NDAA" The Internet will be a powerful tool for different states to communicate with each other and share information and advice.
Power now reverts back to the states, since the federal government has egregiously violated and sought to overturn our "unalienable rights," and we must call on our state legislators, who are closest to us, to recall our federal representatives from Washington who voted for this.
A Longer View
Taking the longer view of a nationwide wave of recall drives against politicians who have broken their oath to "protect and defend the Constitution," these are vital to show that the American people will not let this stand and will fight to reclaim our birthrights as Americans in a peaceful and democratic way. What the congress and the president have done constitutes nothing less than a threat to us and our families, by declaring the authority for what amounts to kidnap, torture, and execution without trial or due process. We are taking this threat seriously.
But the government's over-reach into our sacred rights might also finally bring us, at long last, to that national re-examination so long overdue since 9/11, which started the train of federal government usurpation of basic rights in the name of "security." For although George W. Bush declared that the terrorists "hated us for our freedoms," it was never Al Qaeda which took a vote on the Senate floor to abolish the Bill of Rights, but our very own "domestic enemies" of the Constitution.
That the breath-taking power grab takes place just as a fresh awakening has occurred, taking aim at the corrupting influence of money in our political system, cannot be ignored. The monied powers which rob the taxpayers of trillions in bailouts for irresponsible business practices have been challenged by Occupy Wall Street. The connection between this challenge and the attempted usurpation of our rights is hard to know.
Recall drives against a good number of federal elected officials, based on clearly righteous grounds, might open the way to a new responsiveness in our ossified institutions, by shadowing incumbents at re-election time, encouraging resignations, or, perhaps even, prompting the lawmakers themselves to mend their ways, and become true advocates for their constituents rather than for the bags of money which prowl their halls. It is truly a shame that many of these politicians who had noble entrances into political life, as reformers and mavericks, now conclude these careers as the worst traitors to their sworn oaths that the nation has ever seen.
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."However, there are some who object to the words "traitor" and "treason" when applied to the senators and congressmen who voted for the NDAA, citing Article 3 of the Constitution:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."The Oath required to be sworn by by the Constitution makes provision for defending the Constitution (and nothing else) against "enemies both foreign and domestic." So there is nothing limiting those enemies who "levy war" to foreign powers, as the "enemy combatant" doctrine acknowledges. This doctrine states that enemies of the United States can be either U.S. citizen or non-citizen.
The question then becomes can those who seek to overthrow a central part of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, be considered guilty of treason? The Constitution can be legitimately changed only by Constitutional Convention.
Given the clear affirmation in the founding document even more primary than the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, that the government is "instituted" to "secure these [unalienable] rights," of which right to a jury trial is one, I would argue yes.
This passage of the Declaration is so beautiful, concise, and comprehensive that it always bears reproduction in full:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it... -- Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776."
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