Hunting Time

The U.S. Senate is having an "open season for amending the Constitution," Missouri's Senator Tom Hennings declared on the Senate floor last week.

Last summer the Senate approved two proposed constitutional amendments. One was to guarantee equal rights for women. The other would explicitly forbid the President to seize property, except under an act of Congress. This year the Bricker amendment to curb treaty-making powers bemuddled the Senate for weeks until the plan was finally killed by a one-vote margin.

Last week the Senate found new prey in the language of the founding fathers. It approved a constitutional prohibition against Supreme Court packing by fixing the number of Supreme Court Justices at nine, thus removing Congress' power to add or subtract.

The proposal, sponsored by Maryland's Republican Senator John Marshall Butler, stands little chance of being ratified, but it scampered breezily through the Senate. Less than 90 minutes of committee hearings were held on it last January. Last week's debate, in which only six Senators took part, consumed a mere 2 1/2 hours. Democrat Hennings lamented to a nearly empty chamber that haste does not make good law. But the Senate, uncharacteristically eager to vote, passed the Butler amendment 58 to 19.

Such speed seemed like a filibuster, by contrast to the rate at which Senator William Langer's Judiciary Subcommittee was spawning constitutional changes. In rapid succession last week, Langer recommended to the full committee, which he also heads, amendments to 1) abolish poll taxes, 2) give the President the power to veto individual items in appropriation bills, and 3) lengthen Congressmen's, terms from two years to four. Since his brief hearings on these matters were largely unencumbered by the presence of other Senators, Chairman Langer got subcommittee approval by quick telephone calls to his colleagues. This procedure has also placed before the full committee amendments to 1) let governors appoint Congressmen in the event of national disaster, 2) nominate presidential candidates in direct primaries, and 3) require the granting of full citizenship to all American Indians.

North Dakotan Langer seemed to be dragging his feet on other proposals, among them Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen's 25% limitation on income-tax rates and Vermont Republican Ralph Flanders' measure to make the Constitution acknowledge "the authority and law of Jesus Christ."*

Unlike the Senators, leaders of the House of Representatives are not hunting for trophies in the pages of the nation's supreme law. In the House, the Butler Amendment joined 116 other proposed amendments on 47 different subjects, all of which are resting in the sanctuary of a quiet subcommittee.

This week the Senate prepared to take up the question of giving the vote to 18-year-olds, the one Administration-sponsored constitutional amendment.

* The Flanders amendment text: " This Nation devoutly recognizes the authority and law of Jesus Christ, Saviour and Ruler of nations, through whom are bestowed the blessings of Almighty God.

" This amendment should not be interpreted so as to result in the establishment of any particular ecclesiastical organization, or in the abridgement of the rights of religious freedom, or freedom of speech and press, or of peaceful assemblage.

" Congress shall have power, in such cases as it may deem proper, to provide a suitable oath or affirmation for citizens whose religious scruples prevent them from giving unqualified allegiance to the Constitution as herein amended."

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