Posted on 12/14/2019 3:05:15 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Convention of States
Almost everyone knows that our federal government is on a dangerous course. The unsustainable debt combined with crushing regulations on states and businesses is a recipe for disaster.
What is less known is that the Founders gave state legislatures the power to act as a final check on abuses of power by Washington, DC. Article V of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the state legislatures to call a convention for proposing needed amendments to the Constitution. This process does not require the consent of the federal government in Washington, DC.
The Convention of States Project; a national effort to call a convention under Article V of the United States Constitution, restricted to proposing amendments that will impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress.
Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution
Could work with state militias, they’re already limited by the law which they ignore.
They’ve been talking about this forever, it’s not gonna happen.
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.
Have not thought about CoS in a while what with all that has been going on since the 2016 election.
My first thought is the CoS is now much more likely to occur as the progs have made it clear they believe themselves to be above all laws.
I have not seen the proposed amendments lately, I will give them a read.
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The most important consequence of the first A5 COS is to show that it did not “runaway.”
After that’s established, then the real work to restore the American republic can begin.
Isn’t there a danger of the radical left taking over the Convention as they are prone to take over by force on every issue?
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.
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:
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:
Implicitly forbidden:
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
CoS is unnecessary. Just nullify bad law.
Simple.
I feel one of the steps to make it legitimate is to have a stated purpose for a single amendment.
Like term limits. No sneaking in any BS to remove our God-given Natural Rights.
I’m in all the way.
Not much progress of late...
There are three ways.
Nullify bad laws. Nullify illegitimate Amendments.
Amendments cannot modify a Constitution.
Just nullify.
I originally was in favor of CoS, but since then our County D’s have started having a ‘Constitution Day’ event every summer to ‘educate’ people on the Constitution, and that makes me wonder if they have a preparing to take it over if it’s ever held. Changed my mind.
PA had a State CoS back in ‘68, and we lost a lot of our individual freedoms that way. At least they kept gun rights strong, but we lost on a lot of others, like property rights.
I posted this because I heard an interview with the guys running this campaign. They said they were gaining traction.
Pandora’s box
Congressman Ken buck, CO, in his book,”Drain the Swamp” specifically writes that the CoS is the only way to return power to the states. Great read!
I’ve been posting the following for years now and wonder if it was picked up by the Georgia application language. I would be happy if it was. I may need to travel to speak on it but would prefer a group of state legislators take it up. I have received emails from many who like it but haven’t seen yet if any proposal covering the provisions is in process.
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AMENDMENT XXVIII
To redress the balance of powers between the federal government and the States and to restore effective suffrage of State Legislatures to Congress, the following amendment is proposed:
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Section 1.
A Senator in Congress shall be subject to recall by their respective state legislature or by voter referendum in their respective state.
Section 2.
Term limits for Senators in Congress shall be set by vote in their respective state legislatures but in no case shall be set less than two terms nor more than three terms.
Section 3:
The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 4.
Upon a majority vote in three-fifths of state legislatures, specific federal statutes, federal court decisions and executive directives of any form shall be repealed and made void.
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The first section lets the People of a state ‘fire’ a US Senator. The second section includes a much called-for constitutional provision. The third section hands back to state legislatures the right to ‘hire’ their US Senator. The fourth section gives three-fifths of States effective veto power over federal government overreach.
In sum, sections one and three call for a “States Hire, People Fire” model. Although section three appears to take away the People’s right to a popular vote of their US Senator, section one gives them a much greater right which is to nullify a state legislature’s appointment of a US Senator. Recall power is far more powerful than popular vote power because liars can lie their way into a job but without recall power the liars can stay and enrich themselves and have PR firms write scripts that negate and claim to debunk criticism of their performance. Over time, without recall, the liar scoundrel can solidify their hold on power.
The experiment in a popular vote of US Senators has failed as it has knee-capped state legislatures before Congress and caused false marketing of US Senatorial candidates that the People do not know and cannot know because of information restriction and crafted propaganda. However, a tree is known by its fruit and the performance of a US Senator becomes evident over time in which case the People can recall ‘fire’ their State’s US Senator for cause. Some might say this would result in countless recalls to which the response is so what? A recall serves as a purifier and repeated recalls against a good officeholder will be seen eventually as partisan hype whereas recalls of scoundrels will serve the People.
And what does a popular vote for a US Senator serve? It creates a Super Representative for people in a state and effectively smacks down the People’s local representative body which US Senators can ignore. Why do we need local state reps to have a voice in the broader country? Because they can’t run away, that’s why. They are paid for and can be brought to to bring hell to Washington DC if need be. It’s a power establishment that is in tune with the People that if empowered can take a “2 X 4” to Congress to their attention on our behalf.
But 100 US Senators is such a lure for corporate and foreign control. Only a majority of 100 persons are needed to control a critical part of the US Government and the People can’t do a thing about it because it’s so easy to confuse and divide them. Some say but they can vote someone different. BS. The entities with deep pockets control the game nationally because they can fund favorable media propaganda, they can fund execution of false smears and blackmail, they can even be the same force funding two opposing candidates creating an illusion of choice to the electorate.
But if they have to fund operations in fifty states with thousands of state legislators arising from more than 3,000 counties, then they realize their up against the American People and that prospect frightens them. They have to maintain their centralized model or their monopoly power goes away.
Section 4 gives state legislatures effective veto power against non-elected administrative agencies of the federal government such as the EPA. In effect, state legislatures will have the opportunity to empower a majority of states to act in a sheriff role against federal overreach.
Here is a link to ten terrifying examples of federal overreach:
https://conventionofstates.com/news/10-terrifying-examples-of-federal-overreach
For those interested and who are reading this thread and this post, here is your first order takeaway:
DO NOT ALLOW THE US CONGRESS TO TAKE THESE AMENDMENTS OUT OF THE HANDS OF STATE LEGISLATURES!
Congress did this very thing back in the early 1900’s when a grassroots Article V was in full swing. When the 32nd state passed the amendment proposal, Congress said “Here, let’s take that and relieve you of the burden of getting it enacted. We’ll carry it from here.” Then they modified it to suit their own purposes.
And note that the Convention of States is but one organization that is helping states to manage and track an Article V process. Mark Levin is a brilliant board member of COS so we’re in good hands with COS. But there are others, notably the Assembly of States which is made up of state legislators. It doesn’t matter which management assist organization is chosen by state legislators to help facilitate communications and debate among the 50 states. What matters is that 2/3’s or 34 states pass an amendment proposal that has conforming language. Once 34 states deliver their amendment proposal to the NATIONAL ARCHIVES (NOT CONGRESS!), Congress must vote to send the proposal to be ratified wither by state legislatures or voter conventions.
Once 3/4’s or 38 states or state voter conventions vote to ratify the amendment, it goes back yo the National Archives and becomes part of the Constitution.
Now for you trolls out there that come in and screech RUNAWAY CONVENTION!, the liberals, the Deep State will take over!, etc. I say get lost! There are 12 Blue States and 38 Red States. Conservatives hold the power and now is the time because President Trump is turning the country back to conservatism.
There are already enough conservative states signed up that can quash any attempt by liberals to subvert the process. It only takes 13 states to stop an amendment. And the progressive left control only 12. But that may be changing as Minnesota and Wisconsin and others are flashing increasingly red, So now is the time.
The amendment process was put there by the Founders so that the People and the States would have a role in it because the Founders knew that an aristocracy forming in Congress might one day deny the People the power to adjust Constitutional provisions to better serve them or squash provisions that allow the federal government to encroach on their liberties.
I can tell you from experience, my neighbor is my state legislator and he knows he will feel the heat from people like me at close range should legislation be enacted that goes against the will of the People local to their geography, In Washington DC, legislators can write all sorts of smarmy virtue-signaling double speak and never feel the heat that a local rep can feel. Control at the state level is much closer to the will of the People. it’s that simple.
It took a few miracles for the United States to happen. For Trumps win as well. It was put into the Constitution by the founders for a reason and with every arbitrary ruling by the Court of Supreme whim that reason becomes more obvious everyday. I'm betting on God.
I don’t believe a runaway CoS is possible. However, for the sake of argument, let’s postulate repeal of the second amendment is approved by the CoS. Is it effective at that time? Nope. It is only a proposed constitutional amendment. The proposed amendment must be ratified by three quarters of the states to become effective. This is the ultimate check on a “run away” convention.
I will check it, thanks!
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