Amendments: Constitutionality

Courts sometimes rule that particular laws are unconstitutional. For that to happen in our present system, a case must be brought before the court. The person bringing the suit must have standing, or the case will be thrown out. So if an unconstitutional law is passed, it remains on the books until that law:

A) Harms or imminently threatens to harm someone
B) The harmed person files suit
C) The suit is completed

This process could take years, during which time the law is still being enforced on millions of people. Why should we have to live for years under an unconstitutional law, waiting for just the right court case to show up and wind its way through the system? If a law is unconstitutional, it should be possible for that to be determined before it is implemented!

1) The courts may rule on the constitutionality of bills before Congress prior to their adoption as law, or on any new bill passed into law.

Further, there are some cases where no one has standing. For example, cost-of-living adjustments to Congressional pay mid-term are a violation of the 27th amendment. (The DC circuit court disagrees, but... really? I'm not a lawyer, but... really?) The Tenth Circuit Court ruled that a Congressperson does not have standing to sue for this violation, presumably because they're not harmed by being given more money. But it's also precedent that taxpayers do not have standing to sue for unconstitutional use of tax money except in very narrow circumstances.

That leaves... nobody! No one has standing!

So if a law is clearly unconstitutional, but there is no clear harm to one specific individual, there is no way for this law to be challenged in court. This is simply an absurdity, a flaw in our system. If a law is unconstitutional, all citizens are harmed by its very existence, and thus should have standing to challenge it.

Obviously there's some potential for abuse here. When combined with my previously-proposed free court access, you'll see people challenging every single law on the books, constantly. There's the potential for a denial-of-service attack against the courts. There has to be some cost associated with challenging a law. I don't have a firm cost in mind, so I'll just throw something out there for discussion purposes.

2) A US citizen has the right to challenge the constitutionality of any law in court. Fees may be charged to file a constitutional challenge, but these fees shall not exceed the median weekly wage of the United States.