Why We the People and our States Should Sue Congress!
By David Biddulph – November 3, 2023
- Congress appears to have, since 1908, unconstitutionally blocked the states five times from proposing popular amendments in an Article V Convention of States meeting.
- Congress has unequivocally, since 1788, suppressed the vote of the people on amendments to the US Constitution 37 of 38 times as promised by the Declaration of Independence, our Founders, and recently by the US Supreme Court.
Congress Unconstitutionally Blocked Progressive Era Reformers in 1908: Vote of the People for US Senators Due to Media Exposing the “Treason of the Senate”
The United States Senate concluded in its “Treason of the Senate” statement, that Cosmopolitan Magazine: “finally broke Senate resistance and opened the way for the Seventeenth Amendment’s ratification in 1913.”
“In February 1906, readers of Cosmopolitan magazine opened its pages to this statement: “Treason is a strong word, but not too strong to characterize the situation in which the Senate is the eager, resourceful, and indefatigable agent of interests as hostile to the American people as any invading army could be.” This indictment launched a nine-part series of articles entitled “Treason of the Senate.”
“The “Treason” series placed the Senate at the center of a major drive by Progressive Era reformers to weaken the influence of large corporations and other major financial interests on government policy making. Direct popular election of senators fit perfectly with their campaign to bring government closer to the people.”
“As originally adopted, the Constitution provided for the election of senators by individual state legislatures. In the years following the Civil War, that system became increasingly subject to bribery, fraud, and deadlock. As Congress took on a greater role in shaping an industrializing nation, those with a major business stake in that development believed they could best exert their influence on the U.S. Senate by offering financial incentives to the state legislators who selected its members.”
Progressive Era Reformers, motivated to end the corrupting “influence of large corporations,” lobbied state legislatures. Between 1901 and 1912, the States sent 61 Applications demanding Article V “Convention for Proposing the Direct Election of Senators Amendment.” In 1908, according to the Article V Library, 31 States, two-thirds of the 46 at that time, had reached the Article V mandate where “Congress shall Call the Convention for Proposing Amendments.”
Congress violated their constitutional mandate to “call” the Convention, thus blocking a vote of the people for US Senators and enabling corruption the media defined as the “Treason of the Senate.”
Congress Blocked States Right to Propose 5 Popular Amendments
Congress appears to have blocked the States’ “equal” authority with Congress to propose Amendments five times since 1788 because they have never authenticated, securely stored, or counted Applications to the “two-thirds” for these popular reforms:
- 1908-Direct Election of US Senators (The people were tired of the corruption and wanted to vote)
- 1943-Federal Income Tax Limitation (The people were alarmed by taxes over 50% on their incomes)
- 1965-Apportionment (The state legislatures wanted the people to rule on Apportionment)
- 1979-Fiscal Responsibility (The people, especially those on low or fixed incomes, suffered inflation-related hardship due to the federal government’s fiscal irresponsibility)
- 1980-Right to Life (The people wanted to reverse Roe v. Wade and protect the “lives of all human beings including unborn children”)
Congress Has Suppressed the “Vote of the People” 37 of 38 times on US Amendments
The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
George Washington stated in his farewell address: “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all.”
The Constitution was ratified by Convention delegates ‘‘chosen in each State by the People thereof’’, and the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition, was ratified in 1933 by a vote of the people for Yes-pledged delegates in 39 of 40 State Conventions.
The Declaration of Independence amended: Every state but Hawaii has Petitioned Congress for Redress of grievances in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. Congress is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant who is unfit to be the Ruler where, according to the US Supreme Court in Chiafalo v. Washington,
“We the People Rule”
Speaker Johnson, Louisiana Legislature Hearing 2015: “Federalism is Dying…time to do it (Pass CoS Application)”
