My Populist View of the 27 Constitutional Amendments

1st Amendment — Speech, Religion, Press, Assembly, Petition

Plain English: The government cannot stop you from speaking, worshiping, publishing, protesting, or petitioning for change.

My position: Free speech, free religion, free press, and peaceful protest are the foundation of a free country. Julian Assange did nothing wrong by exposing government wrongdoing. No Sharia law, no Christian law, and no religious law of any kind should control the American government.

2nd Amendment — Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Plain English: The people have the right to own and carry firearms.

My position: Shall not be infringed. Full stop.

3rd Amendment — No Forced Quartering of Soldiers

Plain English: The government cannot force soldiers into your home.

My position: Your home belongs to you. Full stop.

4th Amendment — Searches and Seizures

Plain English: The government cannot search you, your home, your property, or your information without real legal process.

My position: Warrants should always be required. FISA courts are unconstitutional in spirit, intelligence agencies have no right spying on Americans without real warrants, and the government should not be allowed to buy private data from third parties to get around the Constitution.

5th Amendment — Due Process, Self-Incrimination, Property Rights

Plain English: The government cannot force you to testify against yourself, deny you due process, or take your property without fair treatment under the law.

My position: Civil asset forfeiture is disgusting. Police should not be able to take your money, car, home, or property and force you to fight the government just to get back what was already yours.

6th Amendment — Rights of the Accused

Plain English: If the government charges you with a crime, you have the right to a fair, public, speedy trial with a lawyer, a jury, and the ability to confront your accusers.

Corporate power: Steven Donziger won a major judgment against Chevron/Texaco over pollution in Ecuador. Years later, a federal judge wanted him charged with criminal contempt. When federal prosecutors declined, the judge appointed private lawyers to prosecute him in the name of the United States government. That judge should be in prison.

My position: The judge should not get to act like a prosecutor, and private corporations should never be allowed to weaponize the courts like they own them.

7th Amendment — Civil Jury Trials

Plain English: In many civil cases, regular people have the right to a jury trial.

My position: Corporations, employers, and government actors should be able to face regular citizens in front of a jury. Forced arbitration clauses should not be used to bury people's rights in fine print.

8th Amendment — Bail, Fines, and Cruel Punishment

Plain English: The government cannot use excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel punishment.

Wrongful detention: Anthony Robertson spent four months in jail after authorities arrested the wrong man. He was picked up in Ohio, extradited to Tennessee, and held on serious charges despite repeatedly saying they had the wrong person. During those four months, he lost his job, his stability, his freedom, and valuable time with his family.

My position: Innocent until proven guilty is more than a slogan. Poor people should not lose their freedom, job, home, or family stability simply because they cannot afford bail.

9th Amendment — Rights Not Listed Still Belong to the People

Plain English: Just because a right is not listed in the Constitution does not mean the people do not have it.

My position: Our rights do not come from government. They come from God. The job of government is to protect those rights, not chip away at them.

10th Amendment — Powers Reserved to the States and the People

Plain English: Powers not given to the federal government belong to the states or the people.

My position: Washington was never supposed to run every part of American life. The federal government should be smaller, cleaner, and more focused.

11th Amendment — Lawsuits Against States

Plain English: States have some protection from being sued in federal court by people from other states or countries.

My position: States should have protection from frivolous lawsuits, but government immunity should never become a shield for abuse.

12th Amendment — President and Vice President Elections

Plain English: The president and vice president are elected separately through the Electoral College.

My position: Elections should be simple, transparent, and trusted. Electors should reflect how people actually voted instead of using winner-take-all systems that erase millions of voters.

13th Amendment — Abolition of Slavery

Plain English: Slavery and involuntary servitude are banned, except as punishment for a crime.

My position: Thank God the Union won. As a descendant of enslaved people in Brazil, I know that if history had gone differently, people like me or my little brother wouldn't even have had the right to write something like this freely.

Prison labor: Slavery and forced labor should be illegal at the constitutional level, without exceptions.

14th Amendment — Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection

Plain English: If you are born or naturalized in the United States, you are a citizen. States cannot deny people due process or equal protection under the law.

My position: The law should apply equally to everyone. A right is not real if a state can ignore it, and citizenship is not real if the government can ignore it.

15th Amendment — Voting Rights Regardless of Race

Plain English: The right to vote cannot be denied because of race, color, or previous enslavement.

My position: Every eligible citizen should be able to vote. If the state requires ID, the state should provide it for free, and election security should never become a backdoor poll tax.

16th Amendment — Federal Income Tax

Plain English: The federal government can collect income taxes.

My position: Income tax is legal, but the system is rigged. The standard tax deduction should be much higher, and taxes should apply fairly to all compensation, including stock-based compensation.

17th Amendment — Direct Election of Senators

Plain English: Voters directly elect U.S. senators.

My position: Senators should answer to the people, not party bosses, donors, lobbyists, or consultants. Senators should be limited to two terms and barred from cashing in as paid consultants or lobbyists after office.

18th Amendment — Prohibition

Plain English: Alcohol was banned nationwide.

My position: Prohibition was a failed experiment in government overreach. It wasted money, turned average Americans into criminals, and proved that government cannot force morality through bans.

19th Amendment — Women's Right to Vote

Plain English: The right to vote cannot be denied because of sex.

My position: Women are full citizens and deserve full political rights. That should never have been controversial.

20th Amendment — Presidential and Congressional Terms

Plain English: This amendment sets when presidential and congressional terms begin and end.

My position: Power should transfer clearly and cleanly. Major lame-duck policies passed after an election should face a national up-or-down vote before the new Congress is sworn in.

21st Amendment — Repeal of Prohibition

Plain English: Prohibition was repealed, and alcohol regulation was returned mostly to the states.

My position: When government gets something badly wrong, it should admit it and reverse course. The lesson applies to drug policy too: government cannot ban its way into morality.

22nd Amendment — Presidential Term Limits

Plain English: Presidents can only be elected to two terms.

My position: Term limits should apply to everyone in high office. No president, senator, representative, judge, or justice should turn public office into a lifetime throne.

23rd Amendment — D.C. Electoral Votes

Plain English: Washington, D.C. gets electoral votes for president.

My position: American citizens should not be ignored because they live in D.C. Like Puerto Rico and Guam, if the people want statehood, they should be able to vote on it.

24th Amendment — No Poll Taxes

Plain English: The government cannot charge people a tax or fee to vote in federal elections.

My position: Voting should never depend on wealth, fees, fines, paperwork traps, or transportation access. If the government requires ID to vote, that ID must be free. Refer back to the 15th Amendment.

25th Amendment — Presidential Disability and Succession

Plain English: This amendment explains what happens if a president dies, resigns, is removed, or cannot perform the job.

My position: The president's medical checkup should be public. Political parties and friendly medical examiners should not be able to hide or soften information the public has a right to know.

26th Amendment — Voting Age at 18

Plain English: Citizens 18 and older have the right to vote.

My position: This amendment is right where it should be. Any lower makes no sense, and any higher would require changing the draft age too.

27th Amendment — Congressional Pay Raises

Plain English: Congress cannot give itself a pay raise until after the next House election.

My position: Congress should not be able to reward itself while regular people struggle. We need corruption investigations, stock-trade reporting enforcement, and severe penalties for hiding financial conflicts.