The Truth-in-Legislation Amendment: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

If a constitutional convention were called tomorrow and the delegates solicited proposals for topics, we would dust off a proposal we made over ten years ago to subject congressional legislation to a single-subject rule similar to those found in most state constitutions. As Congress continues to pass legislation that its members cannot possibly have read or understood beforehand, and then when members of Congress tell the public that they must first pass legislation to find out what is in it, only to discover that the contents are deeply unpopular, we think it is time to renew our call for the “Truth-in-Legislation Amendment.” This article will lay out our proposal and our rationale for its passage. We will also anticipate some criticisms that went unaddressed in our earlier article.

Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the Tennessee Law Review on May 12, 2015.