[cotton1706]

ping!

[Beagle8U]

OK, it says that it was passed with a ‘party line’ vote, but nowhere in the article does it say which party voted for what?

[Beagle8U]

OK, it says that it was passed with a ‘party line’ vote, but nowhere in the article does it say which party voted for what?

[Governor Dinwiddie]

A convention of the states would be hijacked by Soros and the Left so fast your head would swim. It would be all over, signed, sealed, and delivered before you even knew what hit you.

In today's climate, not a good idea, IMHO.
 

[ConservaTeen]

Where is FReepers stand on this? I’d love to see this, but liberals might hijack it and get rid of free speech, gun rights and the Electoral College...

[shanover]

Sounds great in theory but I think the deep state swamp and the globalist machine would find a way to put a kill shot into the Republic with BS agenda items. These are not the great men of our founding. I don’t trust most Republicans and any Democrats involved in this have a Socialist and Soros agenda.

[Spok]

The courts have already found the right to kill babies in the constitution but not the right to keep and bear arms. How would a rewritten constitution inspire adherence to the rule of law?

[SMGFan]

Please explain what was “Wisconsin passes resolution calling for a constitutional convention -Only 6 more states are...
Badger Herald ^ | November 8, 2017 “

I thought that was “conventionofstates” “

[Thud]

If we want state legislatures to pass resolutions authorizing an Article V Constitution Convention, we must give them some almighty powerful incentives. That is not difficult. We proponents of an Article V Convention should offer them some proposed amendments that will be of immense benefits to individual state legislators, and to state legislatures overall. Here are two such:

Throw the entire Congress out of office, and bar them from ever returning, so state legislators can replace them and get the much more lucrative graft available to Congressmen and Senators. The wording of such an amendment would be simple:

No person who, as of the effective date of this Amendment, is now serving, or has served, all or any portion of a term in the Senate or House of Representatives may be elected to, appointed to, or sworn in as a Senator or Representative.

Wording of the next Amendment would be tricky, and getting it right will require a lot of work by lawyers, politicians and scholars. My idea is to eliminate unfunded federal mandates, which I define as those required only by federal statutes and regulations as opposed to compliance with the US Constitution. That would free up (my guess, but it isn’t wild-eyed) about 20-30% of all present state budgets for state legislators to happily boon-doggle.

Plus this proposed amendment should require the federal government to reimburse the states for the 5-10 years of unfunded federal mandates prior to the effective date of this amendment. Put a cap on that of about a trillion dollars.

My idea here is to also offer state legislatures a trillion dollar bribe to pass Article V Constitutional Convention resolutions. We’d save a lot more than that in a few years if such a Convention is held and actually proposes amendments for the states to ratify.

[Publius]

15: AL, AK, AR, AZ, FL, GA, IN, LA, MO, MS, ND, OK, TN, TX, UT.

For a Convention of the States dedicated to Georgia’s application language, which would re-balance citizens’ rights versus federal power and state power, the count is 15 down, 19 to go.

For a Convention of the States dedicated to a balanced budget amendment only, the count is 30 down, 4 to go.

[Publius]

This is the usual boilerplate that I post to these threads. It explains how the amendatory process works under Article V.

***

The amendatory process under Article V consists of three steps: Proposal, Disposal, and Ratification.

Proposal:

There are two ways to propose an amendment to the Constitution.

• The Congressional Method requires the House and Senate to pass an amendment by a two thirds majority.
• The Amendments Convention Method requires the legislatures of two thirds of the states to apply to Congress to call a Convention for Proposing Amendments. Once the two thirds threshold is reached, Congress is required to set a time and place for the convention.

Article V gives Congress and an Amendments Convention exactly the same power to propose amendments, no more and no less.

Disposal:

Once Congress, or an Amendments Convention, proposes amendments, Congress must decide whether the states will ratify by the:

• State Legislature Method, or the
• State Ratifying Convention Method.

The State Ratifying Convention Method has only been used twice: once to ratify the Constitution, and once to ratify the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition.

Ratification:

Depending upon which ratification method is chosen by Congress, either the state legislatures vote up-or-down on the proposed amendment, or the voters elect a state ratifying convention to vote up-or-down. If three fourths of the states vote to ratify, the amendment becomes part of the Constitution.

Forbidden Subjects:

Article V contains two explicitly forbidden subjects and one implicitly forbidden subject.

Explicitly forbidden:

• No amendment may be added to the Constitution concerning slavery or capitation taxes until 1808. We’re well past that deadline.
• No amendment may be added to the Constitution to change the principle of equal representation in the Senate unless every state deprived of that right approves. If California wants five senators, every state must have five senators. To permit violation of this principle, every state would have to ratify the amendment, not just three fourths.

Implicitly forbidden:

• The Constitution of 1787 may not be abrogated and replaced with a new document. Article V only authorizes “a convention for proposing amendments to this Constitution;” therefore, the Constitution of 1787 is locked in place forever. Congress and an Amendments Convention have exactly the same Proposal power; therefore, neither Congress nor an Amendments Convention can start over. Both bodies can only propose amendments.

Reference works:

Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of the States: A Handbook for State Lawmakers

State Initiation of Constitutional Amendments: A Guide for Lawyers and Legislative Drafters