“The Convention of States is not a Constitutional Convention.”
Maybe you could explain the difference? I can’t.
Yes it’s simple.
A ‘Constitutional Convention’ is preceded by a mandate to perform a major rewrite of the governing document. In the case of the Articles of Confederation, those attending the convention knew they were performing a major revision. The Constitution still retails a lot of language of the original AOC document but addresses the gaps that all states new existed in the AOC. The AOC was never intended to be permanent as it was hastily drawn up and agreed to during wartime. Once peace was attained, the states turned their attention towards thoroughly hashing out a more lasting document which became the Constitution.
Today a ‘Convention of States’ (COS) or more accurately a ‘Meeting of State Delegates’ is a meeting to record votes yea or nay on a list of amendments that have previously been circulated through legislator’s offices and given the green light for inclusion on the meeting’s agenda INCLUDING the rules of order that each delegate must agree to before the meeting takes place. Therefore, the meeting’s purpose is only to record for the National Archives that Article V requirements are satisfied with respect to a list of proposed amendments.
The Meeting of State Delegates will not be an invitation to chaos as prior agreement to rules of order and agenda are mandatory.
I’ve asked Publius to read the post here because he is in tune with the rules of order and the tight control over the amendment proposal procedure and he may be able to provide comments that illuminate just how tight the process will be.