Gregory Watson

Gregory Watson is a Legislative Assistant employed for many years in the Texas Legislature who, in 1982, 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.

Watson's involvement with the 27th Amendment

In 1982, while researching the proposed—but not ratified—Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution (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 the year 1789, provides that any change in the compensation of members of the United States Congress may not take effect until an election of the United States House of Representatives has first intervened. 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 professor gave Watson a 'C' on the paper, explaining to him that she thought that he had not made a convincing case that the amendment was still subject to being approved by the state legislatures nearly two centuries after Congress had offered it to them and, further, that she believed that the topic was irrelevant to modern government.

Watson immediately set out to secure the amendment's incorporation into the Constitution. Using a letter-writing campaign begun in early 1982 to strategically-targeted states, the reaction was swift. The first result was ratification by Maine lawmakers during April 1983, then came success in Colorado—where both houses of the Colorado General Assembly were controlled by Republicans—during April 1984. With each passing year, the legislatures of more and more states ratified the ancient proposal. On May 5, 1992, when lawmakers in Alabama became the 38th to approve it, the measure became the Constitution's 27th Amendment—there being 50 states in the Union at the time. The Archivist of the United States issued a proclamation to that effect on May 18, 1992. And on May 20, 1992, both houses of Congress adopted resolutions agreeing with the Archivist's conclusion.

Having been tracked down by a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, Watson's former University of Texas professor was no longer in the teaching profession when she and Watson last spoke (via telephone in 1996). Watson's grade, unlike the Federal Constitution, was never amended.

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 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 COLA pay raises.

Post-Ratification of 13th Amendment by Mississippi

In 1994, with the 27th Amendment already ratified, Watson verified that the Mississippi Legislature 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 symbolically 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.

Post-Ratification of 15th Amendment by Tennessee

Similar circumstances existed with respect to the Tennessee General Assembly 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 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.

Post-Ratification of 24th Amendment by Texas

Texas State Representative Alma Allen of Houston, at Watson's request, introduced House Joint Resolution No. 39 during the Regular Session of the 80th 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 tax). On April 30, 2007, H.J.R. No. 39 was approved by the Texas House of Representatives with a vote of 138 yeas; 0 nays; 1 present, not voting; and 11 absent. The joint resolution was never acted upon by the Texas Senate and the legislation, therefore, died when the Regular Session of the 80th Legislature ended on May 28, 2007.

Recognition by Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

In a speech delivered in Chicago, Illinois, on May 18, 2007, 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 lawmakers outside of the United States

Pointing to Watson's work on the 27th Amendment, a member of Canada's 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."

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?