[Publius]

I think the crux of Jacq's argument in #145 is this, and it is precisely the same argument that Walker made in Walker v. US in 2000:

• The Single Subject Standard for state applications for a COS that Congress has used for the past 226 years is unconstitutional;
• Congress' tabulation of state applications by state (row) and subject (column) is unconstitutional;
• Tabulation should be by row only with the subject matter of the application being irrelevant;
• As such, Congress should have called a COS in the 1890s when the two thirds threshold was reached (by ignoring subject matter);
• Congress has been in dereliction of its duty since the 1890s;
• Congress today has a duty to call a COS because the two thirds threshold was reached over a century ago.

That's how I understand the argument. The late "Congressman Billybob" explained the Single Subject Standard for tabulation as a part of contract law, the COS being the agent of the states who are the principals. An agent cannot go beyond the agency agreement that he and his principals agree on. He also said that the Single Subject Standard predated the Constitution, going back to basic principles of English Common Law.

As such, I've accepted the Single Subject Standard for convention applications from the states, as does Natelson. Walker's suit failed for lack of standing and futility. My guess would be that only a state could argue Walker's conclusions in federal court.

[Hostage]

There is interpretation of documents and then there is reality.

According to your summation of Jacquerie’s view above, Congress should have called a COS more than a century ago.

The reality is they didn’t.

The reality going forward is they’re not going to.

This is all about appearances. State legislators are hearing from their constituents that something must be done about the out of control federal judiciary. Liberals are pleased; Conservatives are pissed. Congress is impotent. That leaves only the states to do something and they have only Article V which they started decades long ago but never completed. So it’s still a ‘new thing’, a novelty with no impacting history.

Most Americans want a divorce from their abusive federal government. Right now states are like a group of prospective divorce lawyers. They better know what they are doing.