AMENDMENTS REPORT· Fall 2026 · Torch: U.S.
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Amendments
Report
This year, the JCL discussed and voted on two proposed amendments to the NJCL Constitution. Because they were Constitutional amendments, they each required a two-thirds vote of approval from the State delegations to pass.
The first amendment, or the “Office Holding Requirement” amendment, set out to abolish the restriction preventing State officers from also holding NJCL office, with the exception of NJCL Editor. The purpose of the amendment was to turn over that decision to the States themselves, as many smaller States especially may lack qualified students to both run their State JCLs and also campaign for on the national level.
This first amendment, ultimately, did pass, meaning the NJCL is no longer restricting NJCL officers (again, besides Editor) from holding State office. Notably, however, this amendment will only take effect on June 1 of next year, meaning the current NJCL officers cannot simultaneously be State officers. Additionally, many, especially larger States may want to amend their Constitutions if they themselves want to restrict their officers from also holding NJCL office. Due to the delay of when this amendment will take effect, they all have one year to make this change.
The second amendment was called the “States Holding Office” amendment and would have allowed, if passed, a State to hold the same NJCL office multiple years in a row. The rationale for this amendment was that, many times, States have few available candidates they may run for NJCL office. In essence, there’s a one-in-seven chance that a candidate cannot run simply because another person from their State has previously held their desired office. And, especially for smaller States, that could be the difference between running a candidate or not in the first place.
However, especially due to concern over incumbents “locking down” a position, this amendment did not receive the two-thirds supermajority required to pass, meaning that new NJCL officers, except in a State of Emergency, must still be from a different State as the one which previously held the position. A huge thanks to all who participated in the amendments process this year!
Kai Benton, 2025-26 NJCL Parliamentarian