[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 92 (Wednesday, June 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5684-H5685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TERM LIMITS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Smith] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Madam Speaker, I would like to comment today
about the Supreme Court decision limiting the powers of the States to
prohibit those States from enacting term limits.
Madam Speaker, the majority opinion in U.S. Term Limits versus
Thornton, as Justice Thomas points out in dissent, reflects a
fundamental misunderstanding of the 10th amendment's reservation of
powers to State governments and the people. While the 5 to 4 decision
may be a setback for term limits, it is only a temporary one. The
closeness of the vote, and the strength of the dissent's argument,
means that less harm was done to the term limit movement than is
generally believed.
The fundamental issue in Thorton is not term limits, but the power of
States and citizens to add to the three qualifications that are spelled
out in article I for Members of Congress: age, citizenry, and
residence. While the majority makes a cogent and correct argument that
the Constitution bars Congress from setting additional qualifications,
it fails to demonstrate that the States are barred from adding
qualifications. The thrust of the majority's argument is that allowing
States to set additional qualifications could lead to abuses of the
electoral process. The majority said the Founders would have opposed
such abuses, and therefore must have meant to bar the states
[[Page H5685]] from adding qualifications. But the fact, as the dissent
points out, is that the Constitution is silent on the matter. And the
10th amendment could not be more clear: ``The powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.''
The plain language of the Constitution says that unless the
Constitution prohibits states from adding qualifications about who can
represent them in Congress, they should have the ability to do so.
Whether a particular qualification, such as not having served more than
three terms in the U.S. House, is a good idea or not is irrelevant.
If one accepts the majority opinion, then all other state
qualifications are unconstitutional. These would include requirements
that Congressman must live in the district that they represent, or that
they not be a convicted murderer. Justice Thomas points out the
absurdity of the situation where states have the right to restrict
those who can vote in an election, but not the right to say who can run
when he says: ``the people of each state must leave open the
possibility that they will trust someone with their vote in Congress
even though they do not trust him with a vote in the election for
Congress.''
Actually, the Arkansas law would allow Congressmen to serve more than
three terms, it just would require them to be a write-in candidate. The
majority ruling was that this disadvantages a class of candidates, and
holds that an amendment with the purpose of handicapping a class of
candidates is in violation of the Qualifications Clauses and cannot
stand. As the dissent again points out, this would mean that one could
argue that the current congressional campaign finance system
disadvantages challengers, and thus is unconstitutional. The same
arguments could be raised against any redistricting plans of the
various states.
It has not been well-reported that the implications of the majority
opinion
could go well beyond term limits. As other related issues come before
a future Supreme Court, it is possible that the U.S. Term Limits versus
Thornton decision will be overturned. Of course, this would be well
into the future. An interesting question is, where do we go from here?
I am committed to term limits, and have directed the House Clerk to
take my name off the congressional roll after six terms. I believe a
majority of Americans now realize that our government is going to be
better led by a citizen legislature than by career politicians. The
court decision means that neither Congress nor the States can impose
term limits by statute. Unless the decision is overturned, there must
be a constitutional amendment to allow for term limits. While term
limits supporters are often divided on the exact constitutional
language for term limits, I expect them to agree on a form which will
be able to gather the necessary two-thirds vote. Despite having a
majority in the House in favor of term limits, the vote was 61 short of
passing a constitutional amendment in March. Should the people continue
to pressure the Congress a constitutional amendment will be enacted.
Another option is the use of Article 5 to call for a constitutional
convention. While it is true that all 27 constitutional amendments have
come through the Congress, mounting a drive for a convention would add
to the pressure on Congress to pass a term limit amendment and would
keep the movement on the front burner in each of the States.
I believe strongly that the citizens of each of our 50 States have
the right to choose how to govern themselves. The people of any State
should be able to enact and enforce qualifications for their
representatives. Term limits address the broader issue of limiting the
growth of our leviathan government. As George Mason said during the
general debate on the ratifying of the constitution in 1778: ``Nothing
so strongly impels a man to regard the interests of his constituents as
the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people from
whence he was taken.'' Congress must not become a perpetual body. It
must be made up of citizen legislators who, in the words of Thomas
Jefferson, ``might have in idea that they were at a certain period to
return into the mass of people and become the governed instead of the
governors.'' Term limits will accomplish this and States deserve to
have their 10th amendment rights be recognized.
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