The New Constitution Project

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) and Tree Media have launched the New Constitution Project.

There is a growing recognition across the United States, among community leaders and progressive leaders alike, that the U.S. Constitution needs to be upgraded to confront the immense environmental and social challenges of today.

We at CDER believe that it is time to imagine a new source code. One that strives to make the Constitution a force for solving the 21st Century challenges that we face as Americans.

To that end, the New Constitution Project is an effort to “crowdsource” a new Constitution. Beginning with a proposed draft of a new Constitution, the Project seeks to gather comments, text, and ideas from across the body politic. This will then be used to draft succeeding drafts, with the goal of a final draft by the end of 2021.

Among other changes suggested by the initial draft –

Moving the Bill of Rights from the end of the Constitution to the beginning, as most state constitutions do, and add provisions recognizing the rights of nature, rights of communities, and the right of self-governance at the city, town, and county level;
Eliminating all references to the enslavement of people, including the infamous Three-Fifths Clause and the ban on prohibiting the slave trade;
Banning the federal death penalty;
Guaranteeing that access to lawmaking, elections, and governments should not be determined by wealth;
Eliminating the electoral college and replacing it with the popular vote for president;
Recognizing the right to vote, as a method for guaranteeing voter registration and confronting voter suppression;
Recognizing statehood for Washington, D.C.;
Establishing that constitutional rights only protect people, and not corporations; and
Establishing that campaign donations are not protected speech pursuant to the Constitution.

The webpage for the New Constitution Project features three main documents – the current Preamble and Bill of Rights; the first draft of the New Preamble and Bill of Rights; and a two-page summary of the changes proposed for the new Preamble and Bill of Rights. Comments and thoughts can be made on each new section.

The New Constitution Project will also begin work on the three Articles of the Constitution which deal with the legislature, the executive branch, and the judiciary, to produce an initial draft of amended Articles, which will also be crowdsourced through the webpage.

The production of a New Constitution will then serve as a platform to animate constitutional amendments needed to achieve the vision of the New Constitution. Once each phase of the Project is completed, we will begin enlisting Members of Congress to propose these changes, and will also work to incorporate these changes into municipal and state laws and constitutions.

Tree Media has made numerous films related to the environment and democracy, including “We the People 2.0,” “11th Hour,” and “Ice on Fire.”

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights works in the U.S. and around the world to advance the democratic and environmental rights, including the rights of nature.

For more information: info@centerforenvironmentalrights.org