FLASHBACK: A Few Modest Suggestions On Amending The Constitution:

# I think the Ninth Amendment, which reads, “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,” should be amended by adding at the end “and we really mean it!” Ditto the Tenth Amendment, which provides “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” These amendments would underscore that the federal government is one of limited and enumerated powers, and that those powers are islands in a sea of rights — rather than rights being islands in a sea of generalized federal power.

# Any person, having been elected to the office of United States senator, shall be forever ineligible to be elected to the office of president of the United States. The purpose of this amendment isn’t so much to protect the presidency, as to protect the Senate. Very few senators ever become president, but of the 100 people serving in the Senate at any given time, probably about 95 think they’ve got a shot. This causes them to treat their Senate service as a potential steppingstone, rather than an end in itself. Ban senators from higher office and you encourage them to focus on their jobs. Plus, a Senate that couldn’t serve as a steppingstone might attract a better caliber of senator…

# .Make Congress a part-time legislature. Limit it to meeting for 90 days per year, and make it illegal for members to reside in the District of Columbia the rest of the time. With members dispersed around the nation, the influence of K street will shrink — and so will members’ disconnect with the problems of regular Americans.

I liked these in 2011 and I still like them now.