Texas Governor Proposes Nine Constitutional Amendments

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott

Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is going big in the new year — calling for the states to come together to add nine amendments to the United States Constitution.

Under the Constitution, "the legislatures of two thirds of the several states" can "call a convention for proposing amendments," and Abbott is proposing that the time has come to do so.

"There have been many casualties in Washington, D.C.’s war on the rule of law," the 90-page document explains. "But perhaps no one has lost as much as the States."

"Now it is Texas's turn."

Here, per the document, are the nine constitutional amendments Abbott is backing:

I. Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one State.

II. Require Congress to balance its budget.

III. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from creating federal law.

IV. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from preempting state law.

V. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

VI. Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law.

VII. 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.

VIII. Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.

IX. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a federal law or regulation.

After the convention envisioned by the Constitution for proposing the amendments would be held, then three fourths of the states — through the state legislatures or through state conventions — would need to ratify the amendments.

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