The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution,

or,

on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments,***

which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

***note the proposed by the states

we can get around the self centered legislature

and executive branch

Hello!

I was wondering if you have the information on how many Senators are Democratic and how many are Republican. Is it 49 Democratic - 49 Republican and 1 Independent??

and for the House of Represenative what is the take on the 435 members?

and is it 66% of the votes have to agree to pass a law or is it 70%?

2 independants ---- there are 100 senators

202 rep 233 dem

if i remember properly it is 2/3 to pass

so this means if for example Obama wins the Presidency that if he wants to pass a law he would need all the Democrats to agree on his proposal which is

233 Democrats in the House of Represenatives and at least 54 Republicans to agree or it doesn't go through!

49 Democrats in the Senate + 17 non democratics to agree.

So even if Obama becomes president it will be hard to pass anything to help the economy if bipartisnship doesn't endure.

It is similiar to what President Clinton was experiencing wasn't it or he had it worse for the majority in Congress where Republican?

So perhaps it was smart of Obama to pick Biden for he has ties to help endorse new proposals. What do you say?

and Palin well if she has good ties is something yet to be seen. It doesn't look so great for the Republicans at the moment.

A law can pass by a simple majority of the house and senate.

However it takes two thirds of the house and senate to over-ride a veto.

Congress can also use a simple majority to break a filibuster.

Amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by 35 states (2/3) Some amendments are given time limits to be ratified. That's how the ERA was defeated. It timed out.

thx lynann

i was not sure about the simple majority

sorry about that

why i added if i remember properly

Can the Supreme Court remove a member of congress based on a petition of the people...?

In other words can WE petition the Supreme Court to remove some of these thieves from our government...

Given the response to the initial bailout bill I reckon there were enough people sounding off to make such a petition have at least 80% of the taxpaying public.

i have no idea

i guess you can file a law suit against them

and that would get the justice system involved

sue them for misrepresentation and dereliction of duty

who knows if they go against their oath they are in dereliction of their duty imo

but hey what do i know

The House and the Senate govern themselves. One of the aspects of the Constitution that needs to be revised. The Catch-22 is that only the Congress could act upon that. Which me thinks they won't.

The Electoral College is also outdated. But thanks to Alexander Hamilton (and others) that is a Mill Stone that has been around our necks for a long time.

U.S. Supreme Court only acts on the cases they decide to hear. And those have to be ones that have gone through the judicial process and have to have an impact of Federal Law or previous Supreme Court cases.

Problem here is that WE need to have action at the Declaration of Independance level...
Congress has violated the Constitution in that they voted for a measure to use OUR money over OUR protest... i.e. WE were not ACTUALLY represented... Instead WE were IGNORED.

Oh yea, if you read the declaration and compare it to whats going on now, you'd see that it may be a accurate way to put the criminals down, by comparing whats being done in our names, against our will with what the Declaration says...

It's early in the morning but here is my basic understanding of party of the process. It is more complex than this but here's party of it.

The SCOTUS chooses cases based on constitutional issues. Every year numerous cases are appealed to the court. The Justices are looking for appeals issues and can affirm or overturn decisions made by lower courts. The SCOTUS does not make law instead it applies existing law to the cases it hears.

Remember, the Constitution is the supreme law of the United States.

For the SCOTUS to hear a case first an appeal to the court must be filed. The judges review the cases brought to them and decide which cases have merit. It takes a majority of judges, something called writ of centiorari, for a case to move forward in the process.

The court hears appeals of cases from lower state and I beleive sometimes military appeals courts. You don't show up and file a suit there just because you think you have an important case or issue. There are sometimes issues that the court feels may have significant Constitutional impact that they may ask congress or the executive branch for information. I should be able to site an instance for you but again....it's early in the morning and I don't really want to think about it.