The assault on American traditions and freedoms led by the current congress and the Agitator-in-Chief has not gone unnoticed. The Tea Party movement is one such reaction. A popular movement to study and understand the original meaning of the Constitution is another (also see here). And finally, means to strengthen the original meaning of the Constitution, enforcing the original meaning with structural changes in the government, are being widely considered.

Last week Randy Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at Georgetown University, inspired by the originalist vision of the Tea Parties, wrote an op ed in the Wall Street Journal that argued for the enactment of a federalism amendment limiting the powers of the federal government. Ilya Somin at Volokh and others have been sending their learned feedback to Barnett, who revised his proposal from the single amendment with five sections in his WSJ op ed to Ten Federalism Amendments.

The Ten Amendments of The Bill of Federalism

• Article of Amendment 1: [Limits on Federal Power]
• Article of Amendment 2: [Unfunded Mandates and Conditions on Spending]
• Article of Amendment 3: [Reserved Powers of States]
• Article of Amendment 4: [Recision Power of States]
• Article of Amendment 5: [No Federal Death Tax]
• Article of Amendment 6: [No Federal Income Tax]
• Article of Amendment 7: [Term Limits for U.S. Senators and Representatives]
• Article of Amendment 8: [Balanced Budget Veto]
• Article of Amendment 9: [Protection of the Rights Retained by the People]
• Article of Amendment 10: [No Judicial Alteration of the Constitution]

PJTV has a thorough discussion by Barnett and Tea Party organizers on the merits of the proposed amendment that is worth listening to if you have an hour to invest. If you don’t have the time, I’ll summarize what I think are the most important points from the discussion.

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