Constitutionalist Caucus Constitutionalism Plank

The LP Constitutionalist Caucus is an informal group of constitutionalists in the LP Platform community, including Jon Roland, Guy McLendon, and Brian Holtz. Their latest proposals for a Constitutionalism Platform Plank are as follows.

McLendon draft

We support an Originalistic interpretation of the US Constitution as properly amended. All legislation that violates the Constitution according to such interpretation, including when it violates the 9th and 10th Amendments, should be rescinded. Congress should reinstate the system of checks & balances, and rein in Presidential and Supreme Court violations of the Rule of Law.

We support the Declaration of Independence’s assertion that citizens are sovereign, and may alter government as required to protect their unalienable rights. So, we vigorously protect the powers of citizens required to exercise this sovereignty – including the power to hire & fire elected officials via clean & unhindered electoral systems, the power to petition for redress of grievances, and the power of fully informed & empowered juries. Voting machines should strictly have a paper audit trail that can be used to check election results.

Roland draft

We support a strict interpretation of the Constitution as originally understood and properly amended, especially the presumption of nonauthority expressed in the Tenth Amendment, and the unenumerated rights referred to in the Ninth Amendment. We support the appointment of libertarian constitutionalist judges who will make decisions according to such strict interpretation, based on historical evidence, and without regard for precedents that have deviated from strict construction. We demand that Congress repeal all unconstitutional legislation, and focus further legislation mainly on national defense and the provision of an adequate system of courts with honest, competent judges who are not biased in favor of the powerful and well-connected. We demand that Congress not authorize funds for any initiation of military action not authorized by a declaration of war or letters of marque and reprisal, and impeach and remove any president who commits such action.

Holtz draft

We support a strict interpretation of the Tenth Amendment rule that the federal government has no powers beyond those explicitly delegated to it by the Constitution. In particular, we hold that the federal government has no jurisdiction over commerce that does not physically cross state borders, and we oppose the President initiating military hostilities in the absence of a congressional declaration of war.