|
|
|
|
|
|
by aaronharnly
3735 days ago
|
|
|
There's a famous story about the logician Kurt Gödel related to this.[1] In preparation for the US citizenship test, despite assurances from his friends Albert Einstein and Oskar Morgenstern that the test was a mere formality, he studied assiduously all sorts of details about local and national government, including the US Constitution. He quite excitedly told Einstein and Morgenstern that he had found a weakness in the Constitution that would allow the US to become a dictatorship. They were horrified and tried to tell him not to bring up such ideas at the hearing, but the judge happened to note that it was a good thing that in the US, unlike Gödel's native Austria, we were not a dictatorship -- which prompted Gödel to begin explaining his discovery...[2] Unfortunately, no one ever bothered to write down what
Gödel's idea was! But it has been speculated[3] that it is this: that the Article V provision for constitutional amendments does not exclude that provision itself from amendment -- so it is possible to first pass an amendment making it easier to pass amendments, after which it could be a short trip to dictatorship under the right conditions. Fanciful, but a fascinating story. Picturing Gödel, Einstein, and Morgenstern hanging out and being playful with each other is a treat. [1] http://morgenstern.jeffreykegler.com [2] https://d78508e2-a-97b1dc77-s-sites.googlegroups.com/a/jeffr... [3] http://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=42406910501309506... |
|
|
The UK manages to be a Parliamentary democracy without having a single coherent constitution at all, let alone one free of logical defects- so having a perfectly consistent and "loophole-free" constitution doesn't seem particularly important in practice.
The easiest way to wholly undermine the US Constitution is to just expand the Supreme Court bench and then pack it with your cronies, who will then let you do whatever you want and call it constitutional. No amendment needed!