Believe it, or not, this amendment took over 200 years to ratify. It was one of the 12 original amendments proposed
as the Bill of Rights. The original
Second Amendment dealt with pay for Congress.
Any guess as to why it wasn’t included?
It is a simple statement but was not ratified until May 1992.
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the
Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of
Representatives shall have intervened.
We have Gregory Watson, a student at the University of
Texas, Austin[i] to
thank for bringing this back up after it sat forgotten for so many years. Greg wrote a paper on the fact the amendment
was still open and could be ratified. Greg
got a “C” on the paper because his professor thought the idea unrealistic. So, he began a letter writing campaign to the
various state legislatures. The rest, as
they say is history.
Well that’s it… a brief discussion of all 27 Amendments can
be found on my blog if you ever care to go back and review them. Of course, Wikipedia is probably a lot easier
and more detailed. You can also read the
Cornell Law website for good legal reference.
Thanks for reading.
2 comments:
I enjoyed the commentary, immensely! We need to talk about this stuff as a society once in awhile. I tell my non-military friends that the best thing for me was in the 1980's when I got a free issued copy of the Constitution from Uncle Sam. I think it was George Herbert Walker Bush who said, "If we are going to ask them to swear allegiance to this document and put their lives on the line for it, the least we can do is give them a free copy of it." I have been a Constitutional junkie ever since.
Having a copy, or knowing how to look it up before you start ranting about how someone is destroying it is always a good thing. Our founders thought a well informed and understanding citizen was critical to the survival of the nation.
Unfortunately they didn't put those thoughts into a Meme or a sound bite so the media and the young people who only know what they are told, kind of forgets about it.
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