Becker Amendment
The Becker Amendment mentioned in the news article above was well publicized at the time as a possible way of overcoming Constitutional obstacles, but awareness of its substance was thin. Considering the amendment in hindsight, the phrase “smoke and mirrors” comes to mind.
It proposed that writing legislation in a certain way could preclude its EVER being deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary. News reports of the day made the amendment sound viable, and a product of creative and rigorous thinking. Instead of protesting, the public could agitate for the passage of the Becker Amendment.
Those who actually studied the proposed amendment tended to see through it. How could legislation reliably see the future and fend off all new Constitutional challenges? Who could believe that there was a magic formula for writing legislation by which the courts would abide, and stop pursuing the checks and balances imposed upon them by the Constitution? And so, the Becker Amendment went to committee for further study, withered, and died there. Most members of Congress found it contrary to the practice of government defined by the Constitution.
