Single Subject Amendment

Single Subject Amendment
Founder W.S. "Spider" Webb, Jr.
Purpose To amend the United States Constitution to add a single subject rule applicable to Congress

Single Subject Amendment is an American political organization. Its objective is to amend the United States Constitution so that every law enacted by Congress shall embrace only one subject that would be clearly expressed in its title. Forty-one state constitutions have a single subject provision which constitutionally prohibits the use of riders or unrelated provisions in state legislation.[1]

Organization

W.S. "Spider" Webb, Jr. is the founder and CEO of Single Subject Amendment.[1][2][3] Single Subject Amendment is a Super PAC, which registered with the Federal Election Commission on March 1, 2013.[1] Super PACs, officially known as "independent-expenditure only committees," may not make contributions to candidate campaigns or parties, but may engage in unlimited political spending independently of the campaigns.[4][5][6][7] Unlike traditional PACs, they can raise funds from individuals, corporations, unions and other groups, without any legal limit on donation size.[8]

Single Subject Amendment is operating under Article Five of the United States Constitution which provides the authority to amend the Constitution. Amending the Constitution is a two step process and consists of proposing an amendment and subsequent ratification of the amendment.[9] Single Subject Amendment is pursuing both methods of amendment proposal. The 2014 session of the Florida Legislature, on April 24, 2014, passed CS/HM 261 by Representative Halsey Beshears making application for a Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution in order to propose a single subject amendment.[10][11][12] Efforts are underway by Single Subject Amendment to secure passage of the same legislation in the other 49 states. When a total of 34 states pass this legislation, an Article V Convention will be convened for the limited purpose of proposing a single subject amendment.[13] The other method of attempting an amendment proposal was achieved on July 31, 2014 when Congressman Tom Marino, Pennsylvania, introduced H.J.Res. 122 in the 113th United States Congress to propose a single subject amendment.[14][15]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "July Newsletter". Article V News. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Michael Hinman (15 January 2015). "Cusp of history: Pasco leads way to amend Constitution". The Laker. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Michael Hinman (1 May 2014). "Florida first state to demand a single-subject Constitutional convention". The Laker/Lutz News. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "Single Subject Amendment". Find The Best.
  5. ↑ "PACs, Super PACs and 527s". The Washington Post. 28 September 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "Types of Advocacy Groups". OpenSecrets.org. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  7. ↑ Kim Barker and Marian Wang (11 July 2011). "Super-PACs and Dark Money: ProPublica’s Guide to the New World of Campaign Finance". Propublica. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Robert Samuelson (20 February 2012). "The Super PAC Confusion". Real Clear Politics. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "The Constitutional Amendment Process". National Archives. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "CS/HM 261 - Constitutional Convention/Single-Subject Requirement for Federal Legislation". Florida House of Representatives. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "S0368. Constitutional Convention/Single-Subject Requirement for Federal Legislation". GovTrack. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  12. ↑ "H0261. Constitutional Convention/Single-Subject Requirement for Federal Legislation". GovTrack. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Paul Bremmer (20 January 2015). "10 states line up to limit federal power". WND. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  14. ↑ "H.J.Res.122". Congress.gov. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  15. ↑ "H.J.Res. 122". Real Clear Politics. Retrieved 11 February 2015.

See Also

External Links