Posted on 08/22/2013 1:05:12 PM PDT by Red Badger
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., explained to a town hall of his constituents that he wanted to call a national Constitutional Convention after reading Mark Levin’s new book, The Liberty Amendments.
“I used to have a great fear of constitutional conventions,” Coburn said according to the Tulsa World. “I have a great fear now of not having one.”
As the Tulsa World notes, a national convention is called by two-thirds of the state legislatures and is one of two ways the U.S. Constitution can be amended.
Coburn made his remarks in Muskogee, Okla.
-PJ
Be very, very careful for what you wish for.
In the current political climate, there are 26 states with legislatures controlled by Republicans, 18 state legislatures controlled by Democrats and six states have split control.
According to Article V, Congress must call for an amendment-proposing convention, “on the application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States”, and therefore 34 state legislatures would have to submit applications. Once an Article V Convention has proposed amendments, then each of those amendments would have to be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 states) in order to become part of the Constitution.
Might be tough but its worth trying.
You don't have to make yourself clear. You're already as clear as can be.
Just because only one of two allowed methods has been used in the past, doesn't mean that the other method is somehow invalid or should never be used.
You are sounding as if even suggesting the second method is subversive in some way, and that we should only stick to the one method that has been used so far.
-PJ
Yes he would have to leave.
So-called idea of liberal runaway convention is nothing but a scare tactic.
No danger of a runaway convention:
2/3s to pass an amendment
3/4s to ratify
However, through the eyes of a liberal, there is a danger of a runaway convention by conservatives. I’m fine with that.
The ABA Report to which I linked in Post #15 states that an Amendments Convention has sufficient sovereignty to decide its own majority requirement to report an amendment out of convention. It could be two-thirds, but it doesn't have to be. It falls under the same authority as the right to elect its own officers.
The report points out that the two-thirds language in Article V is specific to Congress, but not an Amendments Convention.
Yea like the 1787 con-vention helped. That is really the last thing we need with the whores and thieves that are there now. The Republic only lasted less than 15 years before the bankers had their way. Now since 1913 we have had full on banker/satanists in control and what....? Besides the 100 year charter is up. What do you think they have in mind for us? Peace and prosperity? Well if you believe that then I have beach front property to sell you on the sun. Think the Bill of Rights would survive?
No our founders who believed in Divine Providence and a Creator wrote a simple document. Nothing wrong with it, if the elected ones would just obey it and only legislate in accordance with it. Not the good and plenty clause that Rangel or that other idiot from Michigan found. Plus we have deniers who think God is dead. It will be a hoot to see when he appears and we get to see the look on their faces before they drop dead.
There is hope.. Acts 2:38 and II Chronicles 7:14
Woe unto you scribes/lawyers and pharisees/preachers.
If I were you I would do a whole lot of repenting and seeking forgiveness but then you are of your father the devil.
Levin’s book explains how he proposes it be done. Here are the basic rules that govern a CC. As you can see, there are two ways to actually set forth to hold one.
Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution
From Wikipedia ( View original Wikipedia Article ) Last modified on 12 July 2013 at 05:02.
A Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution, also called an Article V Convention, or Amendments Convention, is one of two alternative procedures for proposing amendments to the United States Constitution described in Article Five of the Constitution. The other method is a vote by two-thirds of each house of Congress. While the possibility of such a convention happening in the twenty-first century seems remote, in recent years there has been a small but influential group of constitutional scholars insisting that state governments call for such a convention.[1][2] They include Lawrence Lessig, Sanford Levinson, Larry Sabato, Jonathan Turley, and Mark Levin among others, and there are reports that such a proposal is gaining “traction.”[1][3][4]
According to Article V, Congress must call for an amendment-proposing convention, “on the application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States”, and therefore 34 state legislatures would have to submit applications. Once an Article V Convention has proposed amendments, then each of those amendments would have to be ratified by three-fourths of the states (i.e. 38 states) in order to become part of the Constitution.
Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig has called for a constitutional convention to draft a Second Constitution of the United States.[1]
Congress has the power to choose between two methods of ratification: ratification by the state legislatures, or instead ratification by state conventions called for that purpose. In contrast to those separate state ratification conventions, a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution would be a single federal convention. While there have been calls for a second federal convention based on a single issue such as the Balanced Budget Amendment, it is not clear whether a convention summoned in this way would be legally bound to limit discussion to a single issue; law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen has suggested that such a convention would have the “power to propose anything it sees fit”.[5] All 27 amendments to the Constitution have happened in a procedural sense by going through Congress and not through proposal by state legislatures.[5]
I always tended to be against the idea of a Constitutional Convention, worried over opening up such a can of worms. But with the situation as it is now, with such a lawless government which picks and chooses which laws to enforce, and leaders taking us down the road to statist tyranny, and even embracing evil, like it has done with faggotizing the military, there just doesn’t seem to be an “America” left to even worry about. Just a decaying, degenerate carcass of a country.
So it just doesn’t seem as big or as worrisome a gamble anymore, due to the country’s degraded state.
Amen amen and amen!
It is not an ‘Amendments Convention’. It’s an Article V Convention and will follow Article V that say upon application of 2/3s of state legislatures, a convention will be called for the purpose of proposing amendments.
Now those amendments might be designed to amend Article V but then those amendments have to be ratified by 3/4s of the states. Today that means 38 states. That’s a high bar.
No, there is not going to a rogue or runaway convention.
Your hysteria is hypothethical and theoretical.
Yes, if we as the people were so unified that we banded together to amend Article V to require say 1/4 of states to call for amendments and half plus one state to ratify, then yes we could do it! We The People, right?
We The People can do anything but that’s all hysterical.
The amendments process will be orderly and only those amendments, for example a marriage amendment, will be taken seriously.
I expect that more than half of Mark Levin’s amendment will not even reach the convention floor.
I personally will do all I can to amend the 16th and 17th amendments.
As to hysteria, there is not one single hysterical word in any of my posts. Are you responding to the right person?
I'm not suggesting that Article V be amended either. I merely pointed out to another poster that his fears were not justified.
Tom should start things going in the right direction by supporting CRs that don’t defund the unconstitutional Obamacare.
That 3/4ths vote works both ways. NY, NJ, Mass, Ct, RI, Del., Cal., Ore, Wash, Ill., Me., Hi., Md., Minn., Vt. And I left out NM, Pa, Mich. and Col. I think Mr. Levin should check his political map before he goes off about calling a convention. Based on the political realities it would be a waste of time and money with neither side achieving anything worthwhile, though maybe a great show for cable TV.
The possible problem with “amending” the constitution is it could be amended in a way we won’t like.
Phooey. And Tom Coburn is one of the better ones, too.
Here is why this is a dumb idea:
- Our Constitution is just fine as-is. The politicians simply choose not to follow it. What makes anyone think they’ll be inclined to follow and new and improved Constitution?
- The math just doesn’t work. In order to be ratified 3/4 of states have to buy off. So tell me. Which of these 15 states are going to buy off on ANY conservative amendments to the Constitution? VT, NY, CA, IL, WA, OR, HI, CT, RI, MA, ME, NJ, MD, MN, and DE. You have to get TWO of them to do so PLUS EVERY OTHER STATE in the union in order to ratify anything. It’s not happening folks.
Frankly, I’m thinking that this is nothing but agitprop.
So, with this *majority*...theoretically we can put our destiny's (so to speak) back with the states. We can exert more influence with these new delegates - and the state legislature - than we can with our bought and paid for DC, er, reps (Congress and Senate).
The fact that Mark keeps reiterating, day after day, that this is our last hope...even over and instead of electing Tea Party reps, says a lot, to me. He's sounding the alarm. All the exits are closing, I'm afraid.
My thoughts exactly. More platitudes and circuses. There is zero percent it would improve anything and 100% chance it would make matters worse. Conservatives can’t even run themselves much less a convention of socialists and RINOs
Yikes.
defund -—> fund
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.