Gregory Watson
Encyclopedia
Gregory Watson has been employed in the legislative branch of Texas state government
from 1982 to present. In 1982, he started the momentum behind the unusual ratification process of the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
. He is described as the "National Coordinator of the Political Movement to Ratify the 27th Amendment" in the case of Schaffer
, Et Al. v. Clinton
, Et Al. (later styled as Schaffer v. O'Neill) litigated in the federal courts of the United States
.
(ERA) of a decade earlier for a paper in a government class that he was taking at the University of Texas at Austin
, Watson came across documentation of another unratified constitutional amendment
which Congress had presented to America's state lawmakers. This other proposal, dating back to the 1st Congress in 1789, had been authored by James Madison, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Madison's proposal would delay congressional pay raises until the electorate got a chance to respond. The one-sentence constitutional amendment reads:
Intrigued, Watson switched the subject of his paper from the ERA to the 1789 proposal and researched what was a still-pending constitutional amendment, despite 192 years having elapsed. Watson's paper argued that—unlike the ERA—the 1789 amendment had no deadline within which the nation's state legislatures must have acted upon it and that it could belatedly become part of the U.S. Constitution
. His report further recommended—on policy grounds—that the amendment should be ratified, as delaying changes of congressional salary would be beneficial against corruption. His instructor, Sharon Waite, gave Watson a 'C' on the paper, explaining that he had failed to make a convincing case that the amendment was still subject to being approved by the state legislatures nearly two centuries later and that the topic was irrelevant to modern government. In short, she said, his thesis was "unrealistic."
Undeterred, Watson set out to secure the amendment's incorporation into the Federal Constitution. Early in 1982, he undertook a letter-writing campaign to strategically targeted states. Initial reaction was swift. The first result was ratification by Maine
lawmakers (April 1983), followed by ratification in the Colorado General Assembly
(April 1984). Over the course of ten years, the legislatures of more and more states were persuaded to ratify the Madison's original proposal. On May 19, 1992, the Archivist of the United States certified that the amendment's ratification was completed, with the legislatures of more than 38 states ratifying it. On May 20, 1992, both houses of Congress adopted resolutions agreeing with the Archivist's conclusion. (Subsequently, it came to light that in 1792 the Kentucky General Assembly
had ratified all 12 original articles of amendments during that state's initial month of statehood.)
Stephen Frantzich, a Political Science professor at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland
, tracked down Sharon Waite, but by then she had no recollection of Watson, or of many students in her lecture classes at the University of Texas, each with some 300 students. Frantzich researched Watson's campaign further, and made "the stepfather of the 27th Amendment" the subject of the first chapter in his book, Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age (1999, 2004, 2008).
In later years, Watson joined a lawsuit filed by former Republican U.S. Representative Bob Schaffer
of Colorado, and others, in an attempt to reverse automatic mid-term, cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) pay raises for members of Congress. The lawsuit was rejected by two federal courts. The United States Supreme Court
refused certiorari because Congressman Schaffer could not establish sufficient proof that he was personally harmed by automatic yearly COLA pay raises.
had never ratified the 13th Amendment
(abolishing slavery). The only official pronouncement of Mississippi lawmakers as to the 13th Amendment was a resolution adopted in 1865 specifically rejecting the 13th Amendment. After Kentucky
legislators took belated favorable action in 1976, Mississippi was left standing alone for 19 years as the only state in the Union both before and after Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to have never—even symbolically—gone on record in support of it.
During the summer of 1994, Watson sent letters to all African-American members of the Mississippi Senate and the Mississippi House of Representatives
informing them of Mississippi's status as to the 13th Amendment and he enclosed with each letter a draft resolution for the Mississippi Legislature to adopt in order to ceremonially post-ratify the 13th Amendment. In March 1995, Mississippi's Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 547 was adopted, thereby making Mississippi the final state to approve the 13th Amendment, albeit 130 years tardy.
as to the 15th Amendment
(establishing the right of adult males of all races to vote). In 1997, as a result of Watson's research and initiative in 1996, Tennessee lawmakers, as a symbolic gesture, post-ratified the 15th Amendment with the adoption of House Joint Resolution No. 32. In response, on October 8, 1997, former U.S. Representative Harold E. Ford, Jr. of Tennessee placed a substantial tribute to Watson in the Congressional Record
.
, at Watson's prompting, introduced House Joint Resolution No. 39 during the Regular Session of the 81st Texas Legislature to post-ratify the 24th Amendment
(prohibiting Congress or the states from conditioning the right to vote in Federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other tax). The Texas Legislature adopted H.J.R. No. 39 on May 22, 2009, thereby symbolically post-ratifying the 24th Amendment, 45 years after that amendment had been incorporated into the Federal Constitution.
House of Commons
, the Honorable Scott Reid
, on June 7, 2001, specifically cited Watson by name during the course of floor debate on the issue of the compensation of officials within the Canadian government by declaring: "The willingness of elected representatives to compensate themselves generously grew to the point that by the 1980s a Texas legislative aide, Gregory Watson, felt compelled to take up the cause. He built a cross-country coalition that convinced the legislatures of 32 states to complete the ratification process. With the simultaneous ratification on May 7, 1992, of the Michigan and New Jersey state legislatures, Madison's proposal became the 27th amendment to the United States' constitution."
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...
from 1982 to present. In 1982, he started the momentum behind the unusual ratification process of the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-seventh Amendment prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of the Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives...
. He is described as the "National Coordinator of the Political Movement to Ratify the 27th Amendment" in the case of Schaffer
Bob Schaffer
Robert Warren "Bob" Schaffer was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Colorado in the 105th Congress and the two succeeding Congresses . In 2004, Schaffer lost in the primary election to be the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat...
, Et Al. v. Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Et Al. (later styled as Schaffer v. O'Neill) litigated in the federal courts of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Watson's involvement with the 27th Amendment
In 1982, while researching the proposed—but not ratified—Equal Rights Amendment to the United States ConstitutionEqual Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
(ERA) of a decade earlier for a paper in a government class that he was taking at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, Watson came across documentation of another unratified constitutional amendment
Constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...
which Congress had presented to America's state lawmakers. This other proposal, dating back to the 1st Congress in 1789, had been authored by James Madison, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Madison's proposal would delay congressional pay raises until the electorate got a chance to respond. The one-sentence constitutional amendment reads:
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
Intrigued, Watson switched the subject of his paper from the ERA to the 1789 proposal and researched what was a still-pending constitutional amendment, despite 192 years having elapsed. Watson's paper argued that—unlike the ERA—the 1789 amendment had no deadline within which the nation's state legislatures must have acted upon it and that it could belatedly become part of the U.S. Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
. His report further recommended—on policy grounds—that the amendment should be ratified, as delaying changes of congressional salary would be beneficial against corruption. His instructor, Sharon Waite, gave Watson a 'C' on the paper, explaining that he had failed to make a convincing case that the amendment was still subject to being approved by the state legislatures nearly two centuries later and that the topic was irrelevant to modern government. In short, she said, his thesis was "unrealistic."
Undeterred, Watson set out to secure the amendment's incorporation into the Federal Constitution. Early in 1982, he undertook a letter-writing campaign to strategically targeted states. Initial reaction was swift. The first result was ratification by Maine
Maine Legislature
The Maine Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate...
lawmakers (April 1983), followed by ratification in the Colorado General Assembly
Colorado General Assembly
The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado.-Constitutional definition:The Colorado Constitution establishes a system of government based on the separation of powers doctrine with power divided among three "departments": executive, legislative and judicial...
(April 1984). Over the course of ten years, the legislatures of more and more states were persuaded to ratify the Madison's original proposal. On May 19, 1992, the Archivist of the United States certified that the amendment's ratification was completed, with the legislatures of more than 38 states ratifying it. On May 20, 1992, both houses of Congress adopted resolutions agreeing with the Archivist's conclusion. (Subsequently, it came to light that in 1792 the Kentucky General Assembly
Kentucky General Assembly
The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky.The General Assembly meets annually in the state capitol building in Frankfort, Kentucky, convening on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January...
had ratified all 12 original articles of amendments during that state's initial month of statehood.)
Stephen Frantzich, a Political Science professor at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, tracked down Sharon Waite, but by then she had no recollection of Watson, or of many students in her lecture classes at the University of Texas, each with some 300 students. Frantzich researched Watson's campaign further, and made "the stepfather of the 27th Amendment" the subject of the first chapter in his book, Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age (1999, 2004, 2008).
In later years, Watson joined a lawsuit filed by former Republican U.S. Representative Bob Schaffer
Bob Schaffer
Robert Warren "Bob" Schaffer was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Colorado in the 105th Congress and the two succeeding Congresses . In 2004, Schaffer lost in the primary election to be the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat...
of Colorado, and others, in an attempt to reverse automatic mid-term, cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) pay raises for members of Congress. The lawsuit was rejected by two federal courts. The United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
refused certiorari because Congressman Schaffer could not establish sufficient proof that he was personally harmed by automatic yearly COLA pay raises.
Post-Ratification of 13th Amendment by Mississippi
In 1994, with the 27th Amendment already ratified, Watson verified that the Mississippi LegislatureMississippi Legislature
The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi Senate, with 52 members. Both Representatives and Senators serve four-year...
had never ratified the 13th Amendment
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On...
(abolishing slavery). The only official pronouncement of Mississippi lawmakers as to the 13th Amendment was a resolution adopted in 1865 specifically rejecting the 13th Amendment. After Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
legislators took belated favorable action in 1976, Mississippi was left standing alone for 19 years as the only state in the Union both before and after Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to have never—even symbolically—gone on record in support of it.
During the summer of 1994, Watson sent letters to all African-American members of the Mississippi Senate and the Mississippi House of Representatives
Mississippi House of Representatives
The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi....
informing them of Mississippi's status as to the 13th Amendment and he enclosed with each letter a draft resolution for the Mississippi Legislature to adopt in order to ceremonially post-ratify the 13th Amendment. In March 1995, Mississippi's Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 547 was adopted, thereby making Mississippi the final state to approve the 13th Amendment, albeit 130 years tardy.
Post-Ratification of 15th Amendment by Tennessee
Similar circumstances existed with respect to the Tennessee General AssemblyTennessee General Assembly
The Tennessee General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional structure:According to the Tennessee State Constitution of 1870, the General Assembly is a bicameral legislature and consists of a Senate of thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of...
as to the 15th Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
(establishing the right of adult males of all races to vote). In 1997, as a result of Watson's research and initiative in 1996, Tennessee lawmakers, as a symbolic gesture, post-ratified the 15th Amendment with the adoption of House Joint Resolution No. 32. In response, on October 8, 1997, former U.S. Representative Harold E. Ford, Jr. of Tennessee placed a substantial tribute to Watson in the Congressional Record
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
.
Post-Ratification of 24th Amendment by Texas
Texas State Representative Alma A. Allen of HoustonHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, at Watson's prompting, introduced House Joint Resolution No. 39 during the Regular Session of the 81st Texas Legislature to post-ratify the 24th Amendment
Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax...
(prohibiting Congress or the states from conditioning the right to vote in Federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other tax). The Texas Legislature adopted H.J.R. No. 39 on May 22, 2009, thereby symbolically post-ratifying the 24th Amendment, 45 years after that amendment had been incorporated into the Federal Constitution.
Recognition by former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
In a speech delivered in Chicago, Illinois, on May 18, 2007, during the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's 43rd Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, Christopher Cox, remarked on Watson's role in amending the Federal Constitution by noting: "The true story is that in 1982, a student at the University of Texas was doing research for his government class, and he stumbled across this unratified constitutional amendment from 1789. He convinced himself that nothing in Article V of the Constitution, which governs amendments, put any time limit on ratification, and so he personally set out on a campaign to revive it. He began writing to state legislators around the nation who kicked it back into life. That undergrad, Gregory Watson, stuck to his goal, until 10 years later, in 1992, the newest Amendment to the Constitution took effect."Recognition by Member of Canadian Parliament
Pointing to Watson's work on the 27th Amendment, a member of Canada'sCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
, the Honorable Scott Reid
Scott Reid (politician)
Scott Jeffrey Reid is a Canadian politician. He has served in the Canadian House of Commons since 2000, and currently represents the Ontario riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington as a member of the Conservative Party....
, on June 7, 2001, specifically cited Watson by name during the course of floor debate on the issue of the compensation of officials within the Canadian government by declaring: "The willingness of elected representatives to compensate themselves generously grew to the point that by the 1980s a Texas legislative aide, Gregory Watson, felt compelled to take up the cause. He built a cross-country coalition that convinced the legislatures of 32 states to complete the ratification process. With the simultaneous ratification on May 7, 1992, of the Michigan and New Jersey state legislatures, Madison's proposal became the 27th amendment to the United States' constitution."
Sources
- Schaffer vs. Clinton no. 99-1385
- Schaffer vs. O'Neill - U.S. Supreme Court
- Findlaw.com - The Telling Tale Of The Twenty-seventh Amendment
- Tennessee General Assembly Symbolically Post-Ratifies Constitution's 15th Amendment
- Remarks of Canadian Member of Parliament the Honorable Scott Reid
- Indiana University - Getting Involved: Individuals Can Make a Difference
- Watson's name on a set of committee minutes during the 2005 regular session of the Texas Legislature
- Texas Legislature phone directory
- The Straight Dope: What's up with the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?