Ronald R. Cherry
Saving America: Article V Constitutional Amendment
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By Ronald R. Cherry
September 23, 2019

The American Revolution began in earnest on July 4, 1776 with the announcement of our Declaration of Independence. It is not over. The struggle for life, liberty and creative pursuit of happiness goes on, and will go on for as long as our human nature remains as it is, because the darker side of human nature seeks to dominate, where some people wish for and plan to do as they please with other people and the product of other people's labor, where some seek to enslave, harm or murder their fellow man. The struggle for our God-given unalienable human rights is the ongoing struggle for human value and dignity. We seek protection from criminals who would do us harm, but what about criminal government? Our Founding Fathers overthrew King George III, his authoritarian Royal court, and his grand military force. Our grandfathers overthrew murdering totalitarian German Fascism and Japanese Imperialism, and our fathers overthrew totalitarian mass murdering Marxist Communism. We are now in the early stages of confronting the evil of totalitarian Islamic Sharia Government and mass murdering Islamic Jihad. So all should be well now on the home front, but it's not. The urge to dominate the American people remains, arising not just from overseas, but from within, taking an emerging hybrid form of the afore-mentioned criminal governments. We must put a stop to it before the would-be Statist Philosopher Kings or Caliphs become entrenched and omnipotent, because at that point our labor and our lives become cheap in their eyes, as we have seen in the bloody trail of history.

After rejecting human slavery, implanted here by European Kings, Americans remained sure of themselves, strong in faith, strong in spirit, strong in body and mind, and strong in accepting the unifying force of the American Declaration of Independence. Foreign enemies fell in defeat, our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness secured by two oceans, and by blood sweat and tears. For many years America stood astride a corrupt international landscape as the beacon of human dignity and freedom, the land of the free and the home of the brave. To my dismay there has arisen an organized effort to corrupt our Judeo-Christian moral foundation, to denigrate our proud history, to enfeeble us with suicidal pacifism in the face of mortal dangers from overseas, to accustom many of us in government dependency, to crumble and transform the American Mind.

Those who would fundamentally transform the United States are embedded in our mass media, entertainment industry, universities and government. They appear to be strong and well organized. In order to prevail, in order to restore our nation to its moral and physical greatness, it will be necessary for American Patriots to engage in a long term inter-generational rebuilding project, not just the rebuilding of bridges and buildings, but a reformation of our schools and institutions, our mass media and entertainment, our laws, and above all a reformation of our character and a restoration of our American Minds.

    "In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American People, find our account running, under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them – they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Their's was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." Abraham Lincoln
A slow motion, anti-American, Socialist counter-revolution has sprung up among us. Don't be seduced, don't be confused about its suicidal trajectory, stand firm for your country, for our American Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution, prepare for struggle and sacrifice if it becomes necessary. The statist enemies of our liberty and creative pursuit of happiness, and possibly our lives, are busy at their undermining work of collectivization, so let's out work them with our strong American hands, and outsmart them with our sharp American Minds. We can defeat the counter-revolution peacefully with a Constitutional amendment. I hope and pray this essay and its educational hyperlinks will give you some moral and intellectual tools to fight the good fight in preservation of all we hold dear.

"As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also." Thomas Jefferson

"The people – the people – are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts – not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it." Abraham Lincoln

The goal and end-game of modern American conservatives should be the same as that of our Founding Fathers, the same goal and end-game of the American Revolution, and that is to secure the equal, God-given, unalienable human rights of all individuals to their life, liberty and creative pursuit of happiness. Our Founding Fathers created a Federal Government via our Constitution to accomplish that goal, but what happens when the Federal Government becomes a violator of our unalienable human rights? What then? What now? The answer is not violence – the answer is State nullification of un-Constitutional Federal Laws, Executive Regulations and Supreme Court decisions which have in fact nullified the US Constitution – incorporated into a Constitutional Amendment – because the mind and the pen are mightier than the sword.

There has been much talk and much written over the last few years regarding the expansion of Federal Government outside the bounds of our Constitution. Many Americans are rightly worried that our Federal Government, like the Oligarchy of King George III, is becoming too powerful, having escaped the Constitutional firewall intended to limit its power. Many Americans see evidence that our excessively powerful (and thereby un-Constitutional) Federal Government has created laws which are destructive of the people's unalienable God-given rights to liberty and fruit of labor in pursuit of happiness. Some of our Founding Fathers, like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, advocated State nullification and/or State-controlled amendment under Article V as necessary means for We the People to thwart un-Constitutional Federal Government; others believe that the electoral process can eventually bring out-of-control Federal Government to heel, but the time horizon for the latter appears to be longer than that for the Socialist counter-revolution now besetting us. Let's start with the amendment process:
    "The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states..." Article V, U.S. Constitution

Article V is an Amendment Convention, not a General Constitutional Convention. The Amendment Convention under Article V does not require a central meeting place – the process may occur in a distributed fashion centered on the various State Legislatures. If the States decide to have a central meeting place it would not have to be in Washington, D.C. – it could be in Oklahoma City. Under Article V there is no role for the U.S. Congress other than "on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, [Congress] shall call a convention for proposing amendments..." That is it for Congress; they are simply required to "call a convention" but no more. No Congressman or Senator need be invited to the proceedings, nor the President or Supreme Court, because American States are "the authority which, in fact, made the Constitution; the authority which being paramount to the Constitution was paramount to the authorities constituted by it..." Multiple States acting in concert have the power to nullify un-Constitutional Federal Law, but not Federal law which is in compliance with the Constitution; this currently existing power can be reinforced by incorporation into the Constitutional Amendment. James Madison, Father of the American Constitution, clearly expressed the supremacy of the States over Federal Government when the latter acts un-Constitutionally – a situation where States become duty bound to nullify Federal power which nullifies our Constitution, to boldly declare that which is Federally un-Constitutional, especially that from an un-Constitutional Supreme Court.
    "That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact [U.S. Constitution], to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil... the General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions of the other states, in confidence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid [Alien and Sedition Acts], are unconstitutional; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each, for co-operating with this state, in maintaining the Authorities, Rights, and Liberties, referred to the States respectively, or to the people." James Madison – 1798 Virginia Resolution

    "The course & scope of the reasoning [1798 Virginia Resolution] requires that by the rightful authority to interpose in the cases & for the purposes referred to, was meant, not the authority of the States singly & separately, but their authority as the parties to the Constitution., the authority which, in fact, made the Constitution; the authority which being paramount to the Constitution was paramount to the authorities constituted by it, to the Judiciary as well as the other authorities [Congress and President]. The resolution derives the asserted right of interposition for arresting the progress of usurpations by the Federal Government from the fact that its powers were limited to the grant made by the States [Constitution]... The mode of their interposition, in extraordinary cases, is left by the Resolution to the parties [States] themselves...in the event of usurpations of power not remediable under the forms and by the means provided by the Constitution [Article V Amendment]... It is sometimes asked in what mode the States could interpose in their collective character as parties to the Constitution against usurped power. It was not necessary for the object & reasoning of the resolutions & report that the mode should be pointed out. It was sufficient to shew that the authority to interpose existed, and was a resort beyond that of the Supreme Court of the U. S. or any authority derived from the Constitution." James Madison – 1834 Notes on Nullification
Thomas Jefferson reiterated the same principle.
    "Resolved, That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes – delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force... that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers..." Thomas Jefferson – 1798 Kentucky Resolution
Uninformed and deceptive individuals object to States rights under the tenth amendment because it is seen as a threat to the supremacy of Federal Government over the States. The "supremacy clause" of our Constitution, found in Article 6 states:
    "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof... shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
The key phrase "which shall be made in pursuance thereof" means that all Federal laws made in pursuance of and in compliance with the Constitution are superior to State laws. Federal laws not made in pursuance of and not in compliance with the Constitution – including those in violation of the tenth amendment – are null and void. Such Federal laws are un-Constitutional and therefore inferior to Constitution-compliant State laws. So, it is apparent from reading the Constitution that Federal Government is in fact supreme over the States in those powers delegated to it by the Constitution and in Federal Laws "which shall be made in pursuance thereof," but inferior to the States in those powers not delegated to it by the Constitution and in Federal Laws which are not made in pursuance thereof.

It is clear from our Founding Fathers, and the Constitution its self, that our Federal Government, including the President, Congress and the Supreme Court, is inferior to the State Legislatures when they act in concert – especially important when Federal Government acts un-Constitutionally. American States are the ultimate defenders of the U.S. Constitution because they were, and still are, the creators of the U.S. Constitution, just as parents are the creators and ultimate defenders of their offspring. State nullification of Constitution-nullifying Federal Power is tantamount to parental nullification of a wayward child who has written some new rules which nullify the family's original rules.

Under Article V of the U. S. Constitution States, acting in ¾ majority, possess power to amend our Constitution without permission of Federal Government – just as the States acted in ¾ majority at the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention to create our Constitution and thus our Federal Government. American States in ¾ majority are Supra-Constitutional. Federal Government is the creature and is therefore inferior to its creator – the States. Like great planets of a revolutionary solar system, the weight of American States keeps the Federal Government in its proper place.

State exercise of Article V would become an Amendment Convention – not a Constitutional Convention. There will be no complete re-writing of the Constitution – only an amendment to the Constitution. There will be no "runaway" Article V amendment because it only takes the active action or passive inaction of13 State legislatures to stop it. As with King George III our Statist (Marxist, Fascist or Islamo-Fascist) would-be masters will face defeat at the hands of We the People. When Federal government is placed back into its smaller non-God-like box – when Federal government receives only 10% of our labor – the States, empowered and limited by their own 10% taxation, would find themselves positioned to take over, or share with private charities, all social programs now un-Constitutionally administered by Federal government: Social Security, Healthcare, Education, etc., thus limiting Federal power to that which serves all Americans equally, such as the U.S. Military, Post Office, Federal Highways, NASA and the CDC. Limiting Federal taxation to 10% would have the effect of resurrecting the 10th amendment – resurrecting State government – resurrecting the Bill of Rights – resurrecting the U. S. Constitution. With such an amendment We the People will finally become masters of both Congress and the Courts, masters of our own destiny.

Amendment XXVIII:

Section 1.
The Declaration of Independence is the supreme un-amendable Natural Law of the United States of America

Section 2. United States Senators and members of the United States House of Representatives shall serve no more than two complete or partial terms in office. United States Supreme Court and Federal Court Judges shall serve no more than 12 years in office.

Section 3. Amendments XVI and XVII are hereby revoked

Section 4. Supreme and Federal Court decisions shall be revoked by Congress with 2/3 or greater vote in both houses

Section 5. The State legislatures in 3/4 majority or greater, the authority which created the Federal Government via the U.S. Constitution, shall have the power to revoke Supreme and Federal Court decisions, Federal Law, and Presidential executive orders outside the scope of military Commander-in-Chief

Section 6. Federal taxation shall not exceed 10% for any individual, nor shall Federal taxation exceed 10% of the nation's GDP. Federal taxation shall be a national sales tax

Section 7. Federal income shall only consist of a maximum 10% domestic taxation as per Section 6 of this amendment, plus foreign tariffs, plus the donations of U.S. citizens, plus the sale of domestically purchased U.S. bonds by U.S. Citizens during wars declared by Congress. Federal income shall not occur through borrowing, except for the sale of domestically purchased U.S. bonds by U.S. citizens during wars declared by Congress; nor shall Federal income derive by fiat creation of money

Section 8. Federal spending shall not exceed federal income.

Section 9. This section of Article 1, Section 8 shall be changed to: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States, and all provisions for general welfare shall be uniform throughout the United States and enumerated herein this Constitution; To borrow money on the credit of the United States as per Section 7 of this amendment; To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and to regulate disputes of commerce among the several states..."

Section 10. This section of Article II, Section 1 shall be changed to: "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States. Natural born citizen shall mean any person born within one of the states of the United States or upon the territorial waters of the United States, of parents who are both citizens of the United States."

Section 11. This section of Article VI shall be changed to: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made not in violation thereof, or which shall be made not in violation thereof, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme amendable secular law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

Section 12. Article III, Section 3 shall be changed to: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them or against this Constitution, 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 Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason except for cases of treason involving the President of the United States, members of the National Congress, or the Supreme Court, where in those cases the States shall have the power to try and declare the punishment of treason by 3/4 majority, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

Section 13. Section 1 of Amendment XIV shall be changed to: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Congress, nor Presidential executive regulation, nor Supreme Court decisions, nor any state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall Congress or Presidential executive regulation or Supreme Court decision or any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."


Author of Restoring the American Mind

© Ronald R. Cherry

 

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Ronald R. Cherry

Ronald R. Cherry, MD, is a board-certified specialist in lung disease who is in the full-time practice of medicine in Sweetwater, Tennessee... (more)

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