ping
The count is still 7: AL, AK, FL, GA, IN, OK, TN.
How many states are needed for this to be effective?
I have in the past been reluctant to support the proposed convention of states as extremely dangerous and beyond control once convened. However, events over the last year have so alarmed me that I am starting to consider that the risk may be one we need to take.
This is great news. This will be the only way out of the flustercluck we’re in.
The final nail in the coffin of unconstitutionally big federal government will happen when the states amend the following excerpt to the Constitution imo.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
Speaking of Congress’s limited power to appropriate taxes, the Constitution also needs to be amended to require candidates and nominees for federal office, elected and non-elected, to first serve as state lawmakers so that they can learn about state budgets in conjunction with Congress’s limited power to appropriate taxes.
Next, please note that the product of a Constitutional Convention (ConCon) is a proposed amendment to the Constitution, not a new amendment to the Constitution. It is up to the Article V supermajority of states to either ratify the proposed amendment, or ignore it.
So since the states don’t have to ratify a proposed amendment, let a ConCon run away all it wants to. If the states ignore a proposed amendment then a run away ConCon was arguably a waste of time.
Also, since the biggest flaw in the original Constitution was to allow the Senate to confirm justices (2.2.2) imo, that clause needs to be repealed, the power to confirm justices given uniquely to state lawmakers.
And speaking of the Senate, a ConCon also needs to propose an amendment to repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments to the Constitution.
An amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment needs to include provisions to allow state lawakers to recall senators, and to allow citizens to recall representatives.
The states also need to amend the Constitution to give state lawmakers the same power to impeach and remove corrupt federal officials from office, including members of Congress, executives and justices, that Congress has.
PS
The Constitution also needs an amendment to require all candidates for any federal office, elected or non-elected, especially candidates who attended an Ivy League law school, to pass a Free Republic constitutional proficiency test, the test emphasizing Congress’s constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers and Congress’s limited power to appropriate taxes. /semi-sarc
Unwise.