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Re:House Democrats to propose ban on lawmaker stock trading ... by techdragon on Thursday July 28, 2022 @03:09PM (#32268843)
Unless Citizens United is overturned, this would take a constitutional amendment, "money is speech" per that Supreme Court verdict and so...

> Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So this puts us as requiring a constitutional amendment since only that can carve out an exception to something earlier in the constitution (see the 21st amendment which repealed prohibition) and unfortunately constitutional amendments have an extremely high bar to clear to make them happen. Not just a "half of the bastards finally agree" like a regular law ...

Per article 5 of the constitution:

> Amendments may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate; or by a convention to propose amendments called by Congress at the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures. To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must then be ratified by either—as determined by Congress—the legislatures of three-quarters of the states or by ratifying conventions conducted in three-quarters of the states

75 percent of the state congresses have to agree to it on top of 2/3 of the federal congress.

It will never happen short of some apocalyptic social shift.

Re:House Democrats to propose ban on lawmaker stock trading ... by eloff on Friday July 29, 2022 @08:30AM (#32276053)
Yeah, I don't like your odds here. Your politicians can barely agree on a budget these days. Constitutional amendments seem like a thing of the past now. But it's likely the only good solution here, and on other issues too, like abortion.
Re:House Democrats to propose ban on lawmaker stock trading ... by techdragon on Friday July 29, 2022 @02:25PM (#32280236)
They really do seem like a thing from history. If you chart both how far apart each of them are in ratification date and time from the start of the process for ratification to the fine they get finally ratified you see this steady increase over time.