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This is a guest book review by Rodney Page. I recently reviewed his book, Powers Not Delegated. You can check out his website at Southern Voices: Musings from the Mountains.

Rating: 5 Stars

Mark Levin’s The Liberty Amendments offers a detailed and exhaustively researched path that, in the author’s view, will lead to the restoration of the Constitution as envisioned by its Framers. The opening sentence of the book clearly states the author’s goal: “I UNDERTOOK THIS PROJECT not because I believe the Constitution, as originally structured, is outdated and outmoded, thereby requiring modernization through amendments, but because of the opposite―that is, the necessity and urgency of restoring constitutional republicanism and preserving the civil society from the growing authoritarianism of a federal Leviathan.”

In the first chapter Levin clearly articulates his reasoning for the need of a Constitutional Convention and the amendments it should put forward for ratification. He cites recent current events and compares and contrasts today’s realities with the Founding Fathers’ well-documented intentions and underlying philosophical underpinnings.

The remaining chapters follow a common format: Levin documents the problems as he sees them, provides brief historical perspectives of their origins and then explains how his suggested Constitutional amendments would solve or ameliorate them.

An Amendment to Establish Term Limits for Members of Congress

Limits service in the House, Senate or a combination thereof to twelve years.

An Amendment to Restore the Senate

Repeals the Seventeenth Amendment and re-vests power to the states’ legislatures to elect senators.

An Amendment to Establish Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices and Super-Majority Legislative Override

Limits service of Supreme Court justices to one twelve-year term and grants both Congress and the state legislatures the authority to overturn court decisions with the vote of three-fifths of both houses of Congress or the state legislatures.

Two Amendments to Limit Federal Spending and Taxation

Propose to 1) impose a balanced budget and limit federal spending to 17.5 percent of GDP and require a three-fifths vote to raise the debt ceiling, and 2) limit the power to tax to 15 percent of an individual’s income, prohibit other forms of taxation and establish the deadline to file income taxes one day before the next federal election.

An Amendment to Limit the Federal Bureaucracy

Establishes 1) an automatic sunset for all federal departments and agencies unless they are legislatively reauthorized, and 2) a mandatory congressional authorization of any regulation imposed should the economic burden of such regulation exceed one-hundred million dollars.

An Amendment to Promote Free Enterprise

Redefines the Commerce Clause as a specific grant of power limited to preventing states from impeding commerce among the states and prevents Congress from regulating commerce within a state.

An Amendment to Protect Private Property

Curbs abuses under the Takings Clause of the Constitution

An Amendment to Grant the States Authority to Directly Amend the Constitution

Allows the states to bypass Congress and propose Constitutional amendments with two-thirds (instead of three-fourths) of the states, requires identical language of an amendment in all the states, eliminates the requirement for Constitutional Convention and provides for a six year time frame within which ratification must be secured.

An Amendment to Grant States Authority to Check Congress

Allows two-thirds of the state legislatures to overturn acts of Congress or significant executive orders.

An Amendment to Protect the Vote

Requires photo ID for all federal elections, limits early voting and prohibits electronic voting.

A reader’s perceived value of the recommendations in The Liberty Amendments is dependent on whether or not he/she believes actual problems exist that require proactive solutions. However, regardless of the reader’s political persuasion, the book’s impeccably researched and detailed presentation provokes a thoughtful and stimulating assessment of the lightning-rod issues of the day that any intellectually honest reader should appreciate.

Source: http://conservativeteachersofamerica.com/guest-book-review-the-liberty-amendments-by-mark-levin/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=guest-book-review-the-liberty-amendments-by-mark-levin