Empowering Constitution-supporting citizens to remove bad-acting members of Congress with the help of state courts. (See the full text of the bill below.)
I’ve drafted a bill to help the states solve one of America’s greatest problems. That problem is that Congress does not very well follow the Constitution it swears to uphold. And who is responsible for impeaching and trying members of Congress who break the rules? Well, Congress is.
Do you see a problem here?
Theoretically, the voters are supposed to oversee Congress, voting out the bad ones. But this hasn’t been working well for a number of reasons. For one, the public is generally under-informed or even deceived about what’s going on. And for another thing, America is a sucker for an incumbent on a ballot. The last I checked, incumbents get re-elected about 90% of the time—even though approval ratings for Congress are dismally low.
If Joe Citizen is going to disapprove of Congress, and yet re-elect his own members of Congress, then we have a serious thinking problem in play, and it’s going to be hard to get Joe to cut that out. Suppose, then, that we were to quit relying so much on Joe to help get rid of bad actors in Congress, and were to turn instead to that smaller number of citizens who are better-informed and who are more likely to get involved in the system than merely to wait for the election cycle every couple of years. In short, that’s what my bill does; it empowers Constitution-supporting citizens to remove bad-acting members of Congress with the help of state courts.
This law could be enacted by any state—and is completely constitutional with regard to the US Constitution. (See the Tenth Amendment.) I hope that my own state, Montana, will lead the way in passing this bill, because it’s about time the people exerted a new level of control over the Congress.
Here’s the text as it stands today. I do update it from time to time as improvements occur to me:
Text of the Runaway Congress Bill
(You may read the text here, or download the PDF further down on this page.)
THE RUNAWAY CONGRESS ACT
(1) DERELICTION OF FEDERAL DUTY. A person commits the felony of dereliction of federal duty who is a Member of Congress, whether having been elected or appointed to represent our State of ___________ in the United States House of Representatives or the United States Senate, and who either:
(a) violates the Oath of Office by neglecting to bring to bear all the legitimate powers of his or her office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
(b) fails to ensure that a proper quorum is present before conducting business in that house of Congress; or
(c) neglects to bring to bear all the powers of his or her office to protect the integrity of that house of Congress of which he or she is a member, and its deliberations, against the bad acts of faithless or derelict members as defined in this Act, of unruly behavior, excess of power, usurpation, corruption, and the like.
(d) fails to vote in opposition to any proposed act of Congress that is not legitimately authorized under the enumerated powers of Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution; or
(e) fails in any given 12-month period to attend at least 90 percent of the meetings of the house of Congress to which he or she was elected.
(2) FAITHLESS REPRESENTATION. A person commits the felony of faithless representation who is a Member of Congress, whether having been elected to represent our State of ___________ in the United States House of Representatives or the United States Senate, and who either:
(a) introduces any legislation that is not legitimately authorized under Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution; or
(b) sponsors or co-sponsors any such bill; or
(c) votes in favor of any such bill; or
(d) colludes with, encourages, or entices other Members of Congress to support such a bill.
(3) PETITION OF COMPLAINT AND INDICTMENT. Whenever a valid petition of complaint is signed by two hundred adult citizens of the State and presented to the District Attorney of any District in the State, the District Attorney shall present it without delay to a Grand Jury for indictment, provided that:
(a) the petition clearly states the date and nature of the alleged violation(s), and;
(b) the petition is filed at a time between the date of violation and seven years after the violation; and
(c) the petition cites at least one violation that occurred after the enactment of this present Faithless Representation legislation.
(4) TRIAL BY JURY. Upon indictment, the case shall be tried by jury at the earliest opportunity in the District Court of that district in which the petition shall have been filed.
(5) VALID DEFENSE FOR FAITHLESS REPRESENTATION. A valid defense must demonstrate to the jury’s satisfaction that:
(a) the bill in question was legitimately authorized by the enumerated powers of Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, but such demonstration shall be made from the text of the Constitution alone, and without reference to any court ruling, or to precedent for such actions in the history of the United States; and that,
(b) provided the defense cites the “general welfare clause” of Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution as its authorization, whether in part or in full, that the bill in question would serve to the general welfare of the United States in keeping with the spirit of the United States Constitution, and not merely to the specific welfare of one particular locality, state, person, group, company, or organization.
(6) INVALID DEFENSE FOR FAITHLESS REPRESENTATION. It shall not be a valid defense that:
(a) the Constitution of the United States does not expressly prohibit Congress from enacting such a bill; nor that
(b) there is historical precedent for similar excesses of power; nor that
(c) the Supreme Court of the United States, nor any other court, has ever supported or ignored in its rulings similar excesses of power; nor that
(d) the President of the United States has signed the bill, or other similar bills into law; nor that
(e) a state of emergency existed, which necessitated such excess of authority; nor that
(f) the bill in question was part of an omnibus bill that was otherwise authorized, whether in part or on the whole, by the Constitution of the United States; nor that
(g) the voters of the State wanted or encouraged such an excess of power.
(7) SENTENCING FOR DERELICTION OF DUTY. Upon conviction for dereliction of duty, if the defendant is still a Member of Congress, he or she shall be subject to censure, impeachment and trial under the United States Constitution, and shall be forevermore ineligible to run for re-election in this State for any local, state, or federal office, or to be appointed to any such office by this State. If upon conviction the defendant holds any office under the State, he or she shall be immediately removed from office and shall be prohibited for life from holding or campaigning for further governmental office in the State, and from working as a lobbyist while still residing in the State.
(8) SENTENCING FOR FAITHLESS REPRESENTATION. Upon conviction, the defendant shall serve a mandatory prison sentence of ten years, and shall be prohibited for life from campaigning for or holding further governmental office in the State, whether elected, appointed, or hired, and from working as a lobbyist, except that:
(a) If the defendant pleads Nolo Contendre and resigns the office within 30 days of the Grand Jury’s indictment, he or she will serve only one year in prison upon conviction for Faithless Representation, though the prohibition from holding public office still stands for the defendant’s lifetime; but
(b) If the defendant had resigned the office before being indicted for Faithless Representation, and had issued a public affidavit at the time of resignation, confessing to the felony of faithless representation, then the jury may, at its discretion, suspend the prison term, though the prohibition from holding public must stand for the defendant’s lifetime.
(9) AUTHORITY FOR THIS ACT. This Act is authorized by virtue of the sovereignty of statehood enjoyed by this State and its citizens, mandated by the Oath of this State’s officials to defend the United States Constitution, and further affirmed and protected by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. No act of Congress, ruling of the United States Supreme Court or any lesser court, executive order of the President of the United States, nor directive of any federal department, shall be considered to have any legal effect in nullifying this Act, and no official of this State shall cite such attempts of the United States Government to undermine this Act as cause for failing to comply with this Act.
To discuss this bill and how to improve it, please contact Jack Pelham here.
