Proposed Amendment XXVIII. Full authoritative text, principles, and constitutional design. Restores continuing consent through a limited fourth branch.
Laws and executive orders take effect immediately. They fall only after three consecutive monthly rejections that meet the 10% threshold. Non-participation is not rejection. Regulations need three consecutive ratifications before they are enforceable.
The people of the United States, in order to restore and secure the enduring consent of the governed, do establish this Citizens Ratification Amendment as a permanent mechanism of democratic oversight and a coequal fourth branch of government known as the Citizens Ratification Branch.
We the People of the United States and of every State shall not be subject to any Federal, State, county, or municipal law, executive order, or regulation which the citizens have not ratified in accordance with this Amendment. All enforceable acts of government shall be presented monthly through a secure national Citizens Ratification Branch Portal for direct citizen ratification or rejection.
All ratifications and related processes shall be conducted electronically through the Citizens Ratification Branch Portal employing state-of-the-art verification methods, including biometric and encrypted credentials with quantum-resistant cryptography or higher standards as technology advances, prioritizing individual integrity and approaching one hundred percent certainty in confirming lawful access by verified citizens of voting age. Any non-citizen or fraudulent access attempt shall constitute a high crime and misdemeanor subject to prosecution. The Portal shall maintain no permanent storage of personal identifying data beyond what is strictly necessary for authentication.
Each official tally of citizen selections shall be certified under oath or penalty of perjury by the Director of the Citizens Ratification Branch. Participation by at least ten percent of registered Portal users in the relevant jurisdiction shall be required for any ratification or rejection to take legal effect. Federal measures shall be subject to nationwide citizen ratification. State-level measures shall be subject only to residents of that State. County and municipal measures shall be subject only to residents of the affected jurisdiction.
A majority of participating citizens recording their selections shall determine acceptance or rejection. Citizens may cast selections of Accept or Reject at any time, and forensic audits of all selections shall be conducted with transparent results published in the Portal. The Citizens Ratification Branch shall provide a publicly visible neutral Artificial Intelligence assistant known as Sentinel to generate clear, factual, scientific, and objective summaries, responses, and educational resources for all citizens. Sentinel shall hold no authority over outcomes and shall refer all flagged issues, anomalies, or concerns to the Director for assignment to investigative boards.
The Citizens Ratification Branch shall maintain a Master Law Library as the sole authoritative register of all measures at every level of government. Only measures not rejected in accordance with this Amendment shall remain enforceable. Citizens may search the Library by category, jurisdiction, and date. Classified or confidential measures shall appear as non-revealing placeholders with classification status certified annually by the President. Absence of a rejection flag in the Library shall signify enforceability. No regulation shall take effect until entered into the Library after three consecutive ratifications.
Statutory laws and executive orders shall take effect immediately upon issuance and shall remain enforceable unless rejected by the citizens in three consecutive monthly cycles meeting the participation threshold. Regulations shall not take effect upon issuance and shall become enforceable only after being ratified by the citizens in three consecutive monthly cycles. Upon the first or second rejection of any measure, it shall remain enforceable and citizens shall receive immediate Portal notification of the rejection count and status. Upon the third consecutive rejection, the measure shall be immediately declared void and unenforceable, marked as unratified in all public legal records, and may not be enforced in its rejected form. Any intervening month failing the participation threshold or yielding approval shall reset the strike count to zero. Nothing in this Amendment restricts the legislative or executive branches from revising, reissuing, or reenacting measures.
The Citizens Ratification Branch shall include a Citizen Commons for open discussion where citizens retain full free-speech rights and may block, filter, or curate their own experience. The Branch shall be governed by a Director appointed by the President of the United States and a Board consisting of one member appointed by each State Governor. The Branch shall have no employees and shall execute all operational functions through contracted services terminable at any time by the Board without cause or penalty. Compensation for the Director and Board Members shall be provided by their appointing authorities.
Any person, including the Director, Board Members, contractors, vendors, technical personnel, public officials, or private citizens, who tampers with, delays, interferes with, manipulates, alters, suppresses, or distorts any citizen selection, tally, Portal display, summary, Master Law Library entry, or ratification process commits a high crime and misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment of not less than twenty years nor more than life in federal prison, by impeachment where applicable, or by both. Such violations shall trigger immediate forensic investigation and referral to the Department of Justice.
The Citizens Ratification Branch shall be fully funded by the United States Treasury as a coequal constitutional branch through mandatory appropriations. Initial funding shall be twenty-five billion dollars per year until twenty-five million citizens register on the Portal, after which funding shall follow a benchmark of approximately one thousand dollars per registered citizen per year, inflation-adjusted, used exclusively for Portal, Library, and citizen services. No external revenue sources shall be permitted.
This Amendment strengthens the Republic, preserves the powers of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, and ensures that no enforceable measure shall exist without the continuing consent of the governed expressed through the Citizens Ratification Branch. All provisions of this Amendment are self-executing.
Education only. Not amendment language.
This amendment, if passed, will perform according to the full meaning and intent of the Citizens Ratification Amendment as described in the CRA. It will establish the permanent Citizens Ratification Branch as the safest and most limited fourth branch of government and create a practical, secure system that gives citizens direct authority to ratify or reject laws, executive orders, and regulations at every level of government. It will implement the monthly Portal process, jurisdiction-specific voting, strong authentication, Sentinel AI support, the ten percent participation threshold, and the three-strike rule that allows laws and executive orders to take immediate effect while remaining subject to repeal after three consecutive rejections, and requires regulations to receive three consecutive ratifications before becoming enforceable. It will make the Master Law Library the sole authoritative record of what is enforceable, protect classified information with proper placeholders, guarantee transparency and public notices, preserve free speech in the Citizen Commons, and maintain the independence and neutrality of the Branch through its governance structure, no-employee contractor model, and constitutionally protected funding. It will impose severe, effective anti-tampering penalties and ensure that no government measure can remain in force without the continuing consent of the governed. While the amendment text is written in concise constitutional language, its meaning and operation will fully deliver the core purposes, mechanisms, safeguards, and outcomes set forth in the CRA. All supporting details, educational tools, modeling capabilities, and operational enhancements described in the CRA are enabled within the authorities granted to the Branch and can be implemented through legislation and rules consistent with this amendment. In every meaningful respect, passage of this text will achieve what the Citizens Ratification Amendment is designed to accomplish: restoring citizen oversight, enforcing consent of the governed, protecting the Republic, and creating a durable, transparent system of democratic accountability without disrupting the structure of representative government.
Permanent citizen oversight of laws, executive orders, and regulations through a secure Portal.
Current system has no continuous way for citizens to withdraw consent. CRA adds the missing return path.
The operative paragraphs above are the locked constitutional text. Archive copy: 02-cra.txt
Continuing consent. Limited fourth branch. Republic preserved.
Right to Accept or Reject laws, executive orders, and regulations at every level.
Laws and executive orders take effect immediately; void after three consecutive rejections. Regulations need three ratifications first.
10% of registered Portal users in the jurisdiction required for any tally to count.
Sole authoritative public record of what is enforceable.
Federal = nationwide. State = state residents only. Local = affected jurisdiction only.
Takes effect upon ratification. No further legislation required.
No legislative, executive, or judicial power given to citizens. Other branches keep full authority.
Non-revealing placeholders. Annual Presidential certification.
Open discussion with full free-speech rights and user-controlled filtering.
Any interference is a high crime. Penalty: 20 years to life.
Mandatory Treasury funding only. No external revenue. Amounts are in the text above; they are not the homepage pitch.
How the Amendment itself is adopted: state legislatures or limited Convention of States. 38 states required. This path is not a clause inside the Branch’s monthly process.
Citizens do not write laws, replace representatives, or override courts.
Restores continuous consent while preserving the existing structure of government.
For more information, visit citizensratification.com