Don’t count your chickens until theirs come home to roost, I know. But the pro-democracy side also needs to be thinking about how to ensure that the political travesties of the 2010s never get repeated. If Democrats wind up in control of the Presidency, Senate, and House come January 2021, history suggests that such unified control may be short-lived, as the loss of power will motivate Republicans to turn out in the mid-terms, and Trump’s defeat perhaps enables them to advance positions more attractive to swing voters. So here’s my list. By design, nothing on this list would require a constitutional amendment. What have I missed?
1. The full H.R. 1 “For the People Act.” Improve election access and integrity, require Presidents to disclose their tax returns, etc. democracyreform-sarbanes.house.gov/…
2. Eliminate (or at least narrow and raise the cost of invoking) the Senate fillibuster.
3. Greatly expand the number of federal district court and circuit court judgeships, and fill those new seats.
4. Add and fill two Supreme Court seats, so as to redress the unfairness of not voting on Merrick Garland and then seating Justice Gorsuch.
5. Admit Washington, Douglass Commonwealth to the union as a state. Provisionally admit Puerto Rico to the union as a state, subject to the outcome of a Puerto Rican referendum to be held within a designated reasonable period.
6. Increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives, thereby bringing the Representative/Constituents ratio more in line with historical and global norms, and diminishing the distortion caused by the rule that even the smallest states get at least one Representative.
7. Apply civil service protections against termination or transfer of U.S. District Attorneys.
8. Increase protections against termination or transfer of Inspectors General.
9. Override by legislation the Office of Legal counsel opinion that Presidents cannot be prosecuted federally for crimes during their terms, and (for good measure) suspend the running of federal statutes of limitation during the terms of the President and Vice-President.
10. Establish a standard pardon and clemency process controlled entirely by career civil service officials of the Department of justice, perhaps under judicial supervision. While the Presidential pardon power has constitutional authorization and thus arguably must continue to exist alongside this new process, provide that (a) if a President grants a pardon or clemency with corrupt intent, that is a federal crime with stiff consequences, and (b) whether the President followed or bypassed the standard process may be considered in evaluating whether the intent was corrupt.
11. Establish a path to citizenship, with voting rights, for DACA registrants and some other categories of undocumented immigrants.
12. Codify the birthright citizenship established under the 14th Amendment.
NOTE TO COMMENTERS: THIS IS MEANT AS A LIST OF CHANGES TO THE “RULES OF THE GAME” THAT WILL PREVENT AN AUTOCRATIC PARTY FROM TAKING POWER AND CONSTRAIN IT IF IT DOES. IT IS NOT MEANT AS A LIST OF SUBSTANTIVE POLICY OBJECTIVES, E.G. AS TO TAX RATES.
