State joins call for Convention to amend US Constitution

Illinois News Network ^ | 12-3-2014 | GREG BISHOP 

[Citizen Zed]

Illinois State lawmakers have joined several other states to call for a Constitutional Convention to amend the U.S. Constitution when it comes to campaign finance reform.

During debate on the House floor Wednesday, State Rep. Chapa LaVia said calls for the convention are to address campaign finance and the scope cannot go farther than that.

But outgoing State Rep. Mike Bost, who recently won an election to the U.S. House, says once the door is opened, anything is possible.

“Once you open and you do a Constitutional convention, it is not going to be and cannot be focused just on one issue, you must then open up – because it’s a Constitutional Convention – you will be dealing with the entire Constitution,” Bost said.

Bost says the danger is there could be unforeseen changes that are detrimental to the Constitutional Republic.

[okie01]

I see at most only one amendment making it all the way through to ratification.

Indeed, if you're a supporter of term limits, an Article V convention is the only way it will ever happen -- as the delegates wouldn't be voting on limiting their own terms.

[bigtoona]

This article is wrong, it is meant to scare everyone into abandoning the process. Article 5 is our best option!

[Rainier1789]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

King Barack and the Left don’t like any of this. However, the first word says it applies to Congress. So the King can ban “Christ”mas, remove the word “peaceably” when you have a grievance against the racist police, and say that “the press” doesn’t mean Faux News.

Why bother amending the “old, outdated” Constitution when you can just ignore or redefine it?

[Rainier1789]

So a vote of 3/4 of the State Legislatures could remove birthright citizenship for the children of illegal invaders?

[OneWingedShark]

Open the door and all of the misfits and loonies will destroy it.

Is that substantively different from what the USSC, Congress and Executive do now?
After all, no reasonable reading of the fifth, sixth, and seventh amendments would allow the practice of Civil Asset Forfeiture that the War on Drugs has created/strengthened… yet we see all three branches protecting the War on Drugs precisely because it gives them money and power.

[alpo]

If we don’t fight back now against the overpowering gov’t and private interest forces that are taking over our country now, when will we?

If ‘bama gets away with his Ex. orders, the next president will be a dictator, Rep. or Demo.

Term limit of combined 12 years total in Senate and House would go a long way to eliminating the unresponsive Congress we now have.

A flat/fair tax and no deficit spending would save our dollar and shrink the gov’t. Allowing states to overturn a Supreme Court decision within a year or 2 would let the states decide on abortion. The same thing with the mess we now have with gay marriage.

The EPA is issuing over 3,000 new ‘rules’ this year that are really laws.

Citizen by birth ccould be changed to birth from parents who are legally present in the US.

[Nateman]

It's the return to Republican Governance that Article V is for. Right now we have nameless faceless bureaucrats writing law. We have Federal Judges using their self invested power of whim to ignore what the Constitution actually said or meant to overrule ballot initiatives passed by millions. We have a Congress which pretends to be carrying out the will of the people but is intent on following their own agenda , whose only concern is how to fool voters into thinking they care about what needs to be done. The leftist super rich, the 1% of the 1% , have gotten much richer even as the countries wealth is drained into their well connected coffers. 

This is no longer the Republic the founders had in mind. Article V was put in place by the Founders for precisely such a time as we have today: A federal Government free of the restraints  of a law abiding people. They gave the states a means to by-pass the whole rotten edifice, that is why there is an Article V in the first place. 

We now have a lawless President actually writing his own law unilaterally and an irresponsible Congress that is only pretending to resist . A Congress that , in actual fact, is pleased to be relieved of being blamed with doing what they wanted anyways. A Congress willing to let this lawless President undermine the very separation of powers that is at the core of our Republic. A genuine Congress jealous of their law making power being seized would impeach this pretender to a throne and would see shutting down the Government as much preferable to ending the Republic itself.

Since it's clear that Congress will not use the power they have to end this dire threat it's up to the states to stop him and their is no better way than using Article V itself to do so. Even if the required amount of states is not reached, as the amount gets close to the requisite 34 the counter offers Congress will submit will get better and better as it feels the heat and the threat of being trumped in their fixed game of endlessly looting.

[cableguymn]

Citizen by birth ccould be changed to birth from parents who are legally present in the US.

---

No.. They must be citizens as well.

We don’t need parents on green cards spitting out anchor babies.

[Nateman]

So you have all sort of groups that want to pander to the whims of Statists. What we also have is 66 out of 99 state houses that are run by Republicans. We have two years before Obama’s army of foreign parasites threatens to pack the voter rolls ensuring RAT rule until total collapse is achieved. There is no better time to do this. There is no greater need to do it. It must be done and it must be done NOW.

[Postman]

Thanks for putting it so lucidly.

[John Valentine]

Thanks for the kind comment.

[ReaganGeneration2]

You are exactly correct.

Rep Bost: “Once you open and you do a Constitutional convention, it is not going to be and cannot be focused just on one issue, you must then open up – because it’s a Constitutional Convention – you will be dealing with the entire Constitution.”

How do people this uninformed get elected in this country?

Article V’s are single subject, and are the last hope. With uninformed fear-mongering like this out there, hope is fading.

[iacovatx]

“Why is it that people go crazy with hysterical fears about an Article V conference of state lawmakers to propose amendments to the US Constitution?”

Only two groups of people object to the Article V convention of the states. The first group doesn’t understand Article V and how a convention of the states works. The second group is vehemently opposed to decentralization of federal power to the states. If you look closely, you may find that the second group is the spurring the first group.

One amendment likely to emerge from the Article V process is restoration of state representation at the federal level. That would get the support of state legislatures regardless of political orientation. However, the fed gov’t stands to lose influence over states if that happens and many online posts are likely to be made by people with a vested interest in the feds having centralized influence. Consider the unfunded mandates that come out of Wash DC and how many special interests like that kind of power over the states.

[CodeToad]

Good. Let’s disband Congress since it cannot and will not hold the president accountable.

[Jacquerie]

<>Kiss the Second Amendment goodbye.<>

Why?

[Jacquerie]

The source column was the worst I've ever read on the subject.

Yes, by all means, everyone should check out Levin's The Liberty Amendments.

[Jacquerie]

On 11/20/14 Obama repealed Article I Section 1 which established the American Republic.

There is nothing to lose, everything to gain at a convention which proposes structural amendments.

[Jacquerie]

There is no Article V requirement that applications must be on the same subject.

The Framers made calling an amendments convention fairly easy. Getting 3/4 to ratify is far more difficult.

Over 34 applications have been made. A convention must constitutionally be called.

[Jacquerie]

The left has been handily amending the constitution since FDR without conventions.

Sixty-six of ninety-nine state houses are in GOP hands. The rats got trounced last month. The borders are open. It is no secret that Obama rules by diktat.

These next two years may be our last real window of opportunity to save what very little remains of our republic.

[Crazieman]

Picture is hereby stolen for future reference.