BY KYLE WHEELER
Los Alamos

Editor:

President Trump seems to think that he can edit the Constitution with a stroke of his Sharpie and delete birthright citizenship. But many of us know that the rules for ratifying the Constitution require a much more onerous process than the simple wishes of one president. 

People who remember the effort to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution are more familiar with the process than the current occupant of the Oval Office. Congress proposed the ERA in 1972, but it requires the amendment to be ratified by two-thirds of the states (currently 38 states). By the time the 38th state ratified the ERA, the deadline had passed, so the ERA is still not part of our Constitution. 

President Trump does not care about the rules, the law, or the role of Congress and the states in changing the Constitution, even though he is surrounded by advisors who know better and could inform him if they had the spine to do so. He has gotten away with so much already (remember, he is a convicted felon), that why should he care? Who is going to stop him? Certainly not this Congress, nor the Supreme Court. 

But government is supposed to be for the people. We are the people. We need to demand adherence to the rule of law. Every member of the House and the Senate needs to hear from their constituents, and hear from them often. It’s on us now.