Mission
Who we are
The New Bill of Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to passing a new group of amendments for the United States Constitution — to secure the future of the American experiment by strengthening four things:
- Freedom — the individual liberties that define American life
- Democracy — government that is genuinely accountable to the people
- Rule of Law — the guarantee that every official, including the president, is bound by the law and the courts
- Good Government — institutions that are effective, honest, and trustworthy
Founding principles
Bipartisanship as a fundamental, not a tactic
Constitutional change in America requires overwhelming consensus — two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. We treat that high bar not as an obstacle but as our organizing principle.
The full-spectrum test
Our amendments must appeal to the shared values of Americans across the entire political spectrum — from MAGA Republicans to socialist Democrats and everyone in between. If a proposal cannot win support across that full range, it does not belong in our platform. We seek the principles that nearly all Americans already agree on, even when their parties do not.
And we treat the test as a measurement, not a hope. Every proposal is judged by its bipartisan floor — the level of support in the less supportive party — using independent polling, real ballot results, and cross-party votes. Proposals that fail the test are set aside publicly, with their evidence, and can return only when the evidence changes. Proposals still waiting on evidence are held as candidates, judged by the same criteria, with the evidence that would move each one.
Only problems that threaten our democracy
We do not pursue amendments for policy preferences, partisan advantage, or symbolic wins. We include only amendments that solve problems that genuinely threaten the future of our country. The Constitution is amended rarely and for the ages — our proposals must meet that standard.
Rules that bind everyone
Every amendment we advance is written behind a veil of ignorance: it binds all future presidents, all future majorities, and both parties equally, forever. We never cite one side's abuses without the other's, and we ask each side to give up a weapon at the same moment the other side does.
Consensus is possible, not because Americans happen to agree, but because no one knows who a fair rule will bind next — and a fair rule protects everyone from everyone.
How we work
- Evidence before advocacy. We research each focus area in depth — the legal landscape, the polling with party breakdowns, the state models, and how peer democracies solved the same problem — and we publish what fails our bar alongside what passes it.
- Principles, not machinery. Constitutional text should carry durable principles: rights, limits, and duties that hold for a century. Dollar amounts, thresholds, procedures, and agency designs belong in legislation — so our drafts state the principle, delegate the machinery to Congress, and include express savings clauses protecting speech, press, petition, and mercy.
- Ratify consensus; don't manufacture it. Amendments succeed when they lock in agreement the country has already reached — through state constitutions, court decisions, ballot measures, and bipartisan votes. Our near-term work of research, polling, and salons is how that consensus gets built and proven before the amendment is asked to carry it.
What success looks like
A ratified set of amendments — a New Bill of Rights — that strengthens the foundations of American freedom, democracy, and self-government for generations to come. It will be achieved not by one faction defeating another, but by Americans of every political persuasion recognizing their shared stake in the country's future. What ratification would change in the law already on the books — and what it would leave to Congress and the states — is set out in After ratification.