Philander Knox was Secretary of State back in 1913 and was by law the public official to whom the States which allegedly ratified this amendment were to send their notices of ratification. When enough of these documents were received by Knox, he commenced a review of them and drafted a report dated February 15, 1913. Therein, Knox noted that "under the provisions of the Constitution a legislature is not authorized to alter in any way the amendment proposed by Congress, the function of the legislature consisting merely in the right to approve or disapprove the proposed amendment." But having said this, Knox went on in the same report and noted all the various changes that the states had made to the amendment.

    This proposition that state legislatures cannot alter or change a proposed constitutional amendment is derived from an establish legal principle which requires that legislative bodies, when considering any given legislative act, must agree to the exact same wording and punctuation of that proposed law. This legislative principle was discussed in a booklet titled How Our Laws Are Made, Document Number 97-120, 97th Congress, First Session, written by Edward F. Willett, Jr., Law Revision Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives:

"Each amendment must be inserted in precisely the proper place in the bill, with the spelling and punctuation exactly the same as it was adopted by the House. Obviously, it is extremely important that the Senate receive a copy of the bill in the precise form in which it passed the House. The preparation of such a copy is the function of the enrolling clerk.

"When the bill has been agreed to in identical form by both bodies– either without amendment by the Senate, or by House concurrence in the Senate amendments, or by agreement in both houses to the conference report– a copy of the bill is enrolled for presentation to the President.

"The preparation of the enrolled bill is a painstaking and important task since it must reflect precisely the effect of all amendments, either by way of deletion, substitution, or addition, agreed to by both bodies. The enrolling clerk.... must prepare meticulously the final form of the bill, as it was agreed to by both Houses, for presentation to the President.... each (amendment) must be set out in the enrollment exactly as agreed to, and all punctuation must be in accord with the action taken."

    Constitutional amendments are likewise subject to this same rule. But with constitutional amendments, not only must both houses of Congress agree upon the precise language of the proposed amendment, so must all state legislative bodies which ratify the amendment.

   II. Short History of How the Oklahoma Legislature "Ratified" the 16th Amendment.

    On February 10, 1910, the Governor of Oklahoma transmitted to the legislature the Congressional resolution proposing the 16th Amendment. A resolution to adopt this federal proposal to amend the U.S. constitution, H.J.R. No. 5, passed the House on March 4, 1910; see Oklahoma House Journal, page 457. When this resolution was sent to the Senate, it was amended; see Oklahoma Senate Journal, pages 458, 464-65. On March 5, the Senate adopted this amended resolution and sent it back to the House for its approval, which was done on March 10; see House Journal, pages 541-542. The resolution ultimately sent to Washington, DC, read as follows:

A RESOLUTION RATIFYING AN AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY THE SIXTY-FIRST CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF MARCH, ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND NINE, TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND DESIGNATED AS ARTICLE SIXTEEN.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

 WHEREAS the Sixty-first Congress of the United States of America at its first session begun and held at the City of Washington, on Monday the fifteenth day of March, one thousand nine hundred and nine, by joint resolution proposed an amendment to the constitution of the United States, in words and figures as follows, to-wit:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled two-thirds of each house concurring therein, that the following article is proposed as an amendment to the constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several states, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the constitution:

ARTICLE 16: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and from any census or enumeration.

Now Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives and Senate of the State of Oklahoma in extraordinary session assembled, such subject having been recommended by the Governor for consideration, that said proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States of America is hereby ratified.

    Many believe (see this brief) that the purpose of the 16th Amendment was to change the constitutional rule by which direct taxes are imposed. According to the constitution, direct taxes must be imposed by means of apportionment, which is determined by the census or enumeration. The 16th Amendment read in part as follows: "without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration." The purpose of this phrase might be to eliminate the requirement to impose income taxes via the apportionment rule. But notice what the Oklahoma legislature adopted: "without apportionment among the several states, and from any census or enumeration." There are very substantive differences between these two resolutions and these phrases are the opposite of each other.

    Did the Oklahoma legislature ratify this amendment? It is clear that a state cannot legally change a proposed constitutional amendment, but it is also equally clear that this is exactly what the 1910 Oklahoma legislature did. We need to protest this travesty and we have every right to do so.

    If you wish to acquire more information, contact the author of The Law That Never Was:

   III. Please, complain about this serious defect to the below listed Oklahoma officials:

The Senator Directory: This site contains the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the Senators. Lt. Governor Mary Fallin is the President of the Senate (see above address info).

The House Directory: This site contains the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the Members of the House.

The Oklahoma Constitution provides in Section II-3: Right of assembly and petition:

The people have the right peaceably to assemble for their own good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances by petition, address, or remonstrance.