Home

How to enact NI4D?

The U.S. Constitution can be amended using the procedures detailed in Article V. These approaches work within the current system.

  • Congress could take on the legislation. Once passed the House and the Senate, the President could sign it into law. (Many of our endorsers and perhaps the Light Party are taking this approach.)
  • The legislatures of at least two-thirds of the states can call a national convention. The amendment would then need to be ratified by either the legislatures of or ratifying conventions held in three-fourths of the states. (Citizens for U.S. Direct Initiative is working on this approach.)

Some think NI4D is too detailed for easy consideration and have suggested a simpler first step.

Frustrated with the difficulty of Article V procedures, Senator Mike Gravel initiated a direct election to ratify NI4D in 2002.

If legislation similar to NI4D was adopted in another country then Americans might get inspired to pass it here. Senator Mike Gravel is currently working on this angle in Korea and Bulgaria.

There is modest support in states like Maine and Texas to secede. If successful, legislation similar to NI4D could be written into the constitution of newly created countries.

More gradually, we could work to mold current initiative law to be more similar to NI4D. This is approach is being taken by:

Nobody can predict what is going to work. Some people prefer working through the Article V procedures. Some prefer a direct election. Some prefer adapting NI4D to other countries. Some prefer a more gradual approach of improving current initiative law. We need to be open to pursuing all of these options and support all of them as best we can. The main thing that will be instrumental in the enactment of NI4D is public awareness and overwhelming grassroots support, regardless of the specific method.