Four North Dakota legislators have introduced SCR 4013, which, if passed, would virtually end constitutional initiatives in the state. It says amendments to alter the constitution must pass by 67% of the popular vote. It bans paying circulators of constitutional amendment petitions. It says circulators must have lived in the state for 120 days before the first signature is collected. And it raises the number of signatures for constitutional initiatives from 4% of the population, to 5%.
The sponsors are Senators Janne Myrdal and David Hogue, and Representatives Claire Cory and Mike Lefor. All are Republicans. Lefor and Hogue are the Majority Leaders of their respective chambers.
In 1988 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that ban paying petitioners, in Grant v Meyer. The decision was unanimous.
Thankfully we have a much different supreme court now. A worthy law like this is well worth the time and money it will take to defend in court as high as needs be, even to the supreme court. If it loses at that level at least we will know where we stand and how much more work remains to fix our judicial system. Plus at least some amendments will be stymied or delayed while their proponents fight it out in court. And if we actually reverse the precedent, even better! More strongly Republican states can follow suit. I call that a win-win-win.
ALL STATE LEGISLATURES —
ANTI-DEMOCRACY MINORITY RULE GERRYMANDER OLIGARCHS —
1/2 OR LESS VOTES X 1/2 RIGGED CRACKED/PACKED GERRYMANDER AREAS. = 1/4 OR LESS CONTROL.
SUPER-WORSE EXTREMIST PRIMARIES./ CONVENTIONS
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PR
The ANTI-DEMOCRACY evil ROT being dictated by the super-evil top hacks in devil City ???
BRAIN DEAD MEDIA TOO MORON STUPID TO DETECT THE EVIL ???
SEE EUROPE MORONS IN 1933-1939 RE HITLER, MUSSOLINI, FRANCO.
Nothing, you idiot. Edward Brown is dead and his body’s in my basement.
AZ, why are you including Franco in that group? He never invaded and kept Spain neutral and out of wars. There was no massive destruction of private property rights, religious rights or minority rights in Spain under Franco, no gulags or death camps.
Keep in mind that he came to power after a war where communist scum came close to establishing actual totalitarianism in Spain. We’ve seen what happens when communists take control of countries and it’s much worse than anything Franco ever came close to doing. Imagine they had won, at the conclusion of WWII the Soviets would have probably pushed further into Europe to try to establish a land bridge to Spain. Perhaps all of western Europe could have fallen. Commies in Italy, France and so on would have been empowered. Franco may have saved not just Spain but the rest of Europe and perhaps the world a much worse fate. If anything we owe him a debt of gratitude.
He wasn’t perfect and got stuck in his ways, and failed to sufficiently liberalize the authoritarian measures that may have been more needed to save Spain from commie revolution and totalitarian rule in the earlier decades of his presidency. But in the 1930s, 1940s and perhaps 1950s what could he have done better without letting the perfect become the enemy of the considerably less bad?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War
SPANISH LEGION IN RUSSIA IN 1941-1942 HITLER ATTACK — WIPED OUT.
NOT SURE IF ANY SPAIN – USSR DECLARATIONS OF WAR.
SPAIN – STILL QUITE UN-STABLE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Division
EASTERN FRONT — WW II
ANY OLDE SURVIVORS ???
Constitutional Amendments should have a much higher threshold. Constitutional Amendments should not be voted in on a whim. It is very hard to amend the US Constitution. State constitutions should also be hard to amend.
And if you are going to include Franco, why not Salazar in Portugal, Austria under Dollfuss (libertarian Ludwig von Mises was his economic advisor), Hungary under Horthy, Gombos and Szalasi, Romania under Duca, Angelescu, Tatarescu and successors; Greece under Kondylis, Metaxas and successors; Peru under Cerro, Flores and successors; Lithuania under Smetona, Voldemaras, Tubelis etc; Argentina under Peron; Poland under Moscicki and Rydz-Smygly; India under Modi, China under Chiang Kai-Shek, Egypt under Nasser and Sadat etc, Taiwan under KMT, Libya under Gaddafi, Syria under Assad, Iran whether under the Shahs or Khomeini and since, Pakistan under Zia and Musharraf, arguay India under Nehru, Bulgaria under Tsanko, Georgiev, Filov; Albania under Zogu/Zog I, Yugoslavia under Korosec, Zivkovic, Stojadinovic and others, Japan starting in the shows period of mid 1920s and arguably back to Meiji late 19th century, and arguably again since ascension of nationalism in the 21st century, to a large degree most Argentine governments from 19e30 to 1983, Brazil under the Vargas government 1930-45 and military rule 1964-85. Chile under Pinochet. Indonesia under Suharto. Philippines under Marcos and Duterte. Peru under Leguia, Cerro, Flores, Benavides, Odria, Godoy, Lopez, Bermudez, and Fujimori, Chad under Habre and Deny, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Congo/Zaire under Tshombe and Mobutu, Norway under Quisling, Hungary again under Orban….
We can just keep going and going but you get the idea. It’s not at all clear which governments do or don’t fit this amorphous category. Good luck, for example, figuring which Turkish governments do or don’t fit.
TOO MANY EXTREMIST LEFT/RIGHT STATIST CONTROL FREAK KILLERS/ENSLAVER GANGSTERS AND THEIR MONARCHS TO COUNT —–
ZERO NEW IN 6,000 PLUS YEARS —
EXCEPT DEMOCRACY IN GREECE ABOUT 500 BC.
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PR
APPV
TOTSOP
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2 AMDT – DUE TO BRIT ATTACK IN MASS ON 19 APR 1775 —
MULTIPLE BATTLES IN WHICH EMERGENCY MILITIA FORCES (*ORGANIZED* AND CRISIS VOLUNTEERS) MADE THE DIFFERENCE IN STOPPING / DEFEATING ENSLAVER BRITS —
LEXINGTON/CONCORD, SARATOGA —
AND A FEW TIMES AFTER USA REGULAR ARMY WAS SEVERELY BEATEN BY BRITS- KING’S MOUNTAIN, COWPENS.
NEW AGE MORONS TOO EVIL STUPID TO KNOW ANY THING ABOUT 1775-1784 AM REV WAR –
ESP SCOTUS HACKS AND USA LAWYER HACKS – ESP USA AGS AND SOL GENS.
You think direct democracy is good? The comparison to two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch comes to mind.
If a state requires a super majority to pass a state constitutional amendment, then it should apply to ALL proposed constitutional amendments,not just those submitted by petition.
There’s a reason we hire legislators. Let them do their jobs.
BEN – WHAT EXISTS NOW —
1/4 CONTROLLING 3/4 INDIRECTLY.
MUCH WORSE IN USA SENATE.
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PR
I’d rather have the professionals do it than amateurs. If you want me to spend time studying a bunch of legislation and voting on it, pay me to do that. If I even want that job. Otherwise, I’m paying someone to do that for me. Let them do their job. It’s like if I took my car to a repair shop, but my neighbor who doesn’t know anything about fixing cars came along and “fixed” it while the car was sitting there waiting to get fixed the next day. And he’s not even going to charge me anything! Yay! How about no?
A VERY FEW SPECIAL INTEREST LAWYERS/GANGSTERS WRITE NEW AGE 1,000 PLUS PAGE BILLS.
THE GERRYMANDER HACK OLIGARCHS CLAIM CREDIT AND ENACT THE BILLS —
UPON THE COMMANDS OF THE TOP MONARCH MONSTERS. – SPEAKERS / MAJORITY LEADERS.
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PR
It’s still their job, not mine or my idiot neighbors. Half these fools out here can barely read, much less would want to. I prefer division of labor. I don’t want some random non-lawyer defending me in court. Or some random person from off the streets operating on me if I need surgery. It’s the same with politicians. I want them to do the jobs we’re paying them to do. I don’t want to do their jobs for them any more than I want to do an auto mechanic’s, doctor’s or lawyer’s job for them. Division of labor is a good thing. We’re hiring these politicians to do a job. Let them do their job.