Free Republic

More than sixty state legislators representing thirty states recently concluded three years of work on suggested rules for an Article V convention, which can be viewed at the Assembly of State Legislatures (ASL) website. Meeting at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the participating state lawmakers debated, amended and voted to approve a draft that addresses all facets of the rules needed to hold a state-led convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These men and women are to be congratulated for their efforts. If accepted and actually followed by the convention, the rules will provide an orderly process...

Dear Mrs. Schlafly, I grew up hearing about your amazing work on behalf of conservatism. As a woman, a conservative activist, and a constitutional attorney, I have always admired you as a model of each. So I am disturbed to find myself on the opposite side of you on the issue of the Convention of States Project-the effort to trigger a state-led, Article Five convention to propose constitutional amendments to restrict and reduce federal power. At the risk of seeming impertinent, I am compelled to address some of the points you raised in your recent letter urging state legislators to...

A main problem many Americans have with a constitutional provision convention is that it could be a runaway convention. This is true despite item specific, general subject matter, and convention restrictive petitions as there is no Article V provision giving any such authority to the States or to Congress. Should an “amendments convention,” as the Article V Convention advocate organization Convention of States likes to call it, implying that is all it could ever be, were ever to be convened, it is inherent in this type of a 50 State convention to be a runaway convention should the properly convened...

It takes a fair amount of audacity for a pair of political bloggers to call a group of lawyers that includes professors from Princeton and Georgetown Law School, two former Supreme Court law clerks, a White House Counsel, a law school dean, an attorney with actual Article V litigation experience and a former attorney general of Virginia “a posse of supposed conservative constitutional scholars.” What could merit this kind of sneering vilification from the local political bloggers? We merely contend that the states should use the explicit text of Article V of the Constitution to stop the abuse of power...

Conservative talkradio host Mark Levin made news Thursday when he addressed the annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a "non-partisan membership association of state lawmakers," and it wasn't just because he reiterated his call for an Article V "Convention of the States" to propose new amendments to the Constitution. Levin's call for an Article V Convention of the States has been well known since the publication of his best-selling book, The Liberty Amendments, more than a year ago. On Thursday, Levin framed the Article V Convention of the States as the beginning of the process in which...

I keep getting asked about this and people keep advocating it, so let's talk about it. The issue is a Constitutional Convention, with the expressed intent being to return the United States to its Constitutional Roots. Sounds like a good idea, yes? Well, it quite arguably is, if you'd like to see the government return to its Constitutional boundaries. The problem is that this "remedy" isn't a remedy and if it comes to pass what you want won't happen. I know this for a fact and, if you think about it, so do you. I know what you're going to...

U. S. Constitution

Even with Michigan recently becoming the 34th state to call for a Constitutional Convention, it's not at all certain that a rewrite of the nation's founding document is close at hand... Unless called to deal with a specific issue, some legal experts warn a "runaway" convention could create chaos. "Let's assume that we get Congress to call for a convention, and we are deliberating about one item. Maybe that would stick. But how can you be confident that once you open the door to a constitutional convention, even if for one narrow amendment, that it won't just become a runaway...

Mark Levin is interviewing David Long, President of the Indiana State Senate. Long is organizing an Article V. meeting at Mt. Vernon. He says he has 26 states committed already to come to the meeting. When the LEFT discover this is really happening, they will go ballistic. I hope the legislatures are ready for the war that will ensue. Indiana passed a law requiring any delegate must follow rules set by the state, otherwise it is a felony. THERE WILL BE NO RUNAWAY CONVENTION. Long says that he will not be satisfied in just threatening a convention--but it needs to...

Practically everyone I know agrees that strictly obey the Constitution and that is why those that oppose the calling forth of Article V Convention are Constitutional hypocrites. You can not support the Constitution while at the same time rejecting the provisions of Article V. The Article V Convention was what the method the founders provided to insure the people would be able to control the government and prevent their abuse of power. There have already been more than 34 states that have petitioned Congress for an Article V Convention Even though the requisite numbers of states has been reached Congress...

When it comes to amending the U.S. Constitution, Congress has shown respectful behavior to one type of action by states: state decisions on ratification of amendments proposed by Congress. But when it comes to states invoking Article V’s option for a convention of state delegates to propose amendments, Congress has, for the entire history of the nation, blatantly and illegally ignored those state applications. As part of FOAVC’s project to make available all such Article V Convention applications for public scrutiny, it has made an important observation. Congress has failed miserably (most likely by design) at its duty to track...