Our Constitution is not and never was perfect. The Framers intended for it to undergo amendment as required to maintain the spirit of the Revolution and to prevent the recurrence of the weaknesses that saddled our government under the Articles of Confederation. Yet, amending the Constitution has become nearly impossible in our current political environment. Our “frozen” Constitution now ranks among the most difficult to alter the world over.
This status quo cannot persist if our constitutional order is going to withstand threats to its core principles–such as federalism, the separation of powers, and the sovereignty of the people–arising from modern developments. Built-up pressure to amend the Constitution has stressed other political institutions and actors: Congress arguably delegates too much of its legislative power to agencies–power that is then exercised with insufficient oversight; successive presidential administrations have increasingly turned to executive orders to fill in legislative gaps better suited for congressional attention; and the Supreme Court has swung from narrowly interpreting the Constitution to effectively amending it via pathbreaking decisions.
The undersigned call for a Constitutional Convention with a single agenda item: amending how we amend our Constitution
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