Florida Senate - 2024                                   SCR 7066
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Fiscal Policy
       
       
       
       
       
       594-03400-24                                          20247066__
    1                    Senate Concurrent Resolution                   
    2         A concurrent resolution applying to the Congress of
    3         the United States to call a convention for the sole
    4         purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution
    5         of the United States stating that the United States
    6         Congress shall make no law applying to the citizens of
    7         the United States that does not also equally apply to
    8         all United States Representatives, United States
    9         Senators, and all members of the federal legislative
   10         branch.
   11  
   12         WHEREAS, one of the fundamental underpinnings of a
   13  democracy is the rule of law; and
   14         WHEREAS, in order for the rule of law to be respected and
   15  adhered to by the citizenry, it must be applied fairly and in an
   16  equal manner; and
   17         WHEREAS, Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment to the
   18  United States Constitution reads in part “...nor shall any State
   19  deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due
   20  process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
   21  the equal protection of the laws.”; and
   22         WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has held that the
   23  Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States
   24  Constitution requires equal protection under the laws of the
   25  federal government; and
   26         WHEREAS, in spite of the Equal Protection Clause and the
   27  Due Process Clause within the Constitution, over time the United
   28  States Congress has chosen on a number of occasions to exempt
   29  its members and the federal legislative branch from the
   30  requirements of laws it has enacted that apply to all others
   31  throughout the United States; and
   32         WHEREAS, the United States Congress acknowledged this issue
   33  and decided to address it in part by passing the Congressional
   34  Accountability Act of 1995, which applied to Congress and its
   35  agencies to adhere to the requirements of several laws that it
   36  had previously exempted itself from; and
   37         WHEREAS, at present, Congress and the federal legislative
   38  branch remain exempt from the requirements of many laws Congress
   39  has passed; and
   40         WHEREAS, having laws passed by the United States Congress
   41  apply differently to the general public versus members of
   42  Congress and the federal legislative branch is a fundamental
   43  unfairness under the rule of law, and violates the spirit of the
   44  Constitution’s Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; and
   45         WHEREAS, under Article V of the United States Constitution,
   46  on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the
   47  several states, the Congress shall call a Constitutional
   48  Convention for the purpose of proposing amendments, NOW,
   49  THEREFORE,
   50  
   51  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida, the House
   52  of Representatives Concurring:
   53  
   54         That the Legislature of the State of Florida applies to
   55  Congress, under Article V of the Constitution of the United
   56  States, to call a convention limited to proposing an amendment
   57  to the Constitution which would prohibit the United States
   58  Congress from making any law applying to the citizens of the
   59  United States that does not also equally apply to all United
   60  States Representatives, United States Senators, and all members
   61  of the federal legislative branch; and
   62         That this application constitutes a continuing application
   63  in accordance with Article V until the legislatures of at least
   64  two-thirds of the states have made applications on the same
   65  subject.
   66         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Legislature also proposes
   67  that the legislatures of the states comprising the United States
   68  apply to the Congress to call a constitutional convention for
   69  proposing such an amendment to the Constitution.
   70         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this concurrent resolution is
   71  revoked and withdrawn, nullified, and superseded to the same
   72  effect as if it had never been passed, and retroactive to the
   73  date of passage, if it is used for the purpose of calling a
   74  convention or used in support of conducting a convention to
   75  amend the Constitution of the United States with any agenda
   76  other than to propose an amendment to the Constitution which
   77  would prohibit the United States Congress from making any law
   78  applying to the citizens of the United States that does not also
   79  equally apply to all United States Representatives, United
   80  States Senators, and all members of the federal legislative
   81  branch.
   82         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this application be
   83  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   84  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   85  United States House of Representatives, to each member of the
   86  Florida delegation to the United States Congress, and to the
   87  presiding officer of each house of the legislature of each
   88  state.