Posted on 03/27/2006 7:58:11 PM PST by Publius
Another thing that could happen at a Convention... the old Constitution could be scrapped completely.
Too many rats and too many chicken crap republicans to force an amendment.
If you read the essay completely, you'd see that your fear is not valid. The scrapping of the Constitution is forbidden. Please read the essay thoroughly.
It's misleading to think muleskiners and hayseeds would show up as state delegates - they would most likely be politicians of some sort.
That's why I mentioned Agenda Item #13.
How many states have shall-issued concealed carry?
Ho wdo you go about limiting a convention if it gets ambitious? Remember, the convention that gave us the Constitution was only charged with amending the Articles of Confederation. Insetad, it threw them out.
But it still had to be ratified by the states.
And with the nutballs in government today, you could probably get numerous states to ratify a brand-new, socialist constitution.
Someone needs to post "the map" again.
Nice essay. Its too bad that the states don't actually use one of the few checks they have left on the national government. As long as the states don't try to dump the whole Constitution at a convention, people will feel more comfortable with using that method of proposing amendments.
An Article V Convention is the property of the states, and the language used by the states to request Congress to call a convention defines the purview of that convention. In its petitioning language, the states may ask for a convention to address one subject, a plethora of subjects, or even ask for a general convention to address any subject, i.e. a revision of the Constitution.
The states define what the convention is permitted to address.
That is a quaint notion, JimRob. But Justice Black foresaw this day long ago with his dissent in Griswold:
Use of any such broad, unbounded judicial authority would make of this Court's members a day-to-day constitutional convention.
So there is no need to have a Constitutional Convention. As Justice Black predicted, we have one every time SCOTUS convenes.
And the convention can run away and propose just about anything. As a practical matter, how do you stop them?
If the states request a general revision of the Constitution, then it can address amendment proposals on any subject it wished. But not until. That potential aganda I listed is what might happen if the states requested an open convention to address any subject.
Failing such all-encompassing language, a convention would be restricted to the subject(s) that the states requested it to address.
Actually, I wrote the essay. Congressman Billybob took a look and caught me on two blatant mistakes.
I would not trust either a democrat or a republican with the constitution. Your idea is horseshit.
Yes, but how do you keep the convention from simply ignoring the restrictions? Politicians don't like restrictions on their authority.
As I said, the Constitutional Convention was a "ruanway" convention that exceeded its mandate to amend the Articles of Confederation.
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