Proposing a 28th Amendment (UPDATED)

On Facebook earlier today, I wrote that I would like to propose the following amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law exempting its members or their staff from any other law, federal, state, or municipal. All such exemptions are hereby declared null and void.

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but the more I think about the basic idea, the more I like it. I’m sure it could be written better, and no doubt would need to be in order to do what it’s intended to do; I think, for instance, that it should probably say that “Congress shall make no law exempting its members or their staff in whole or in part from any other law.” Whether it would be necessary to include sentences or sections applying to the other two branches of the federal government, I’m not sure, but I could see that. And more generally, I’m no constitutional-law scholar, so I expect there are probably other issues with my draft amendment. But I think the basic principle is sound.

More than that, I think this is important. I think Congress’ habit of exempting itself from the laws it passes, seen most recently with ObamaPelosiCare (if this is such a wonderful thing, why don’t they want to live under it?), is profoundly undemocratic, and utterly opposed to the spirit of the Constitution which our representatives are sworn to uphold. I think correcting this absolutely rises to the level of a proper constitutional concern.

The biggest thing that I believe justifies addressing this issue with a constitutional amendment, though, is that Congress will never voluntarily restrain itself. Indeed, it would be impossible to get this amendment to the states for ratification by the normal process, because Congress would never pass it; they’d never admit they were deliberately scuttling it, but that’s exactly what they’d do—and it would be a completely bipartisan effort, make no mistake about it. If we the people want this added to the Constitution, we’ll have to do it by the other process specified in Article V: two-thirds of our state legislatures will have to request that Congress call a national constitutional convention to propose this amendment to the states. (Should a serious effort be made to do so, Congress might capitulate and pass the amendment to prevent a full-out constitutional convention, but that would be fine, too.)

Trying to amend the Constitution is no small thing under any circumstances. Trying to do so as a grassroots effort would be to attempt a very great mountain indeed. But I think it’s worth doing, and I’m going to start talking to people, and writing about this wherever I can, to see if we can make this happen. I believe this is an important issue, and would be a change for the better for our nation; I believe it’s worth the trouble.

Thoughts?

Update: I’ve had someone pass on to me another version of the same idea:

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.

In some respects, I think that wording is better; the kicker, I think, is that any such amendment should make clear that not only is Congress forbidden in future from exempting itself from the laws it passes, but that all such provisions currently on the books are no longer operative, and thus that going forward, all the laws of the land apply to them, even those which previously did not.