BEFORE OCTOBER 1, 2015
At present, Georgia and one other state have submitted petitions to Congress using Mark Levin’s language. That’s 2 down, 32 to go.
The Clerk of the House and the Archivist of the United States will synchronize their Excel spreadsheets.
As the year wears on, there will be less and less interest in this topic, and at best I would see 10 states submitting petitions using Georgia’s language. That’s 10 down, 24 to go. Here at FR, we will see fewer and fewer threads on the subject as Phyllis Schlafly and the John Birch Society scare legislators into avoiding the issue. There will be a lot of misinformation and fear mongering.
AFTER OCTOBER 1, 2015
I believe Martin Armstrong to be right. Due to the failure of an ideologue President and Congress to come to terms on the budget, we will see not only a government shutdown, but a default on our national debt. This will set off a worldwide financial panic because our bonds are the collateral of the world banking system.
Obama will cite a clause in the 14th Amendment about the debt of the US not being questioned to assert that he can spend as he wishes without going to Congress. This will be King Charles I versus Parliament all over again. Congress will go to court, and the House will impeach Obama. Some 30 Democrats in the House will vote for impeachment to assert the rights of Congress according to the Constitution. Power will trump party.
In January 2016 when the state legislatures meet for the new year’s session, the states will pile on. By the Presidents Day holiday in February, we’ll see 35 to 39 petitions delivered to Congress from the states for a convention using Georgia’s language. We only need 34.
The debate that broke out in 1967 will break out all over again. Some voices will argue that Congress can refuse to call a convention and nobody can do anything about it. At that point, in a closed meeting in Washington, John Boehner will say the following.
“Fellas, we can’t count on the Supreme Court staying out of this. Remember that gasbag Adam Clayton Powell? The Court forced us to seat him. Besides, the optics are terrible. This is an election year, the economy is in the tank, we can’t sell our bonds, both political parties are on the verge of splintering, and people are about to start shooting. It’s that bad. I say we call the convention for a year from now in a city where the people are dependent on government and are willing to intimidate the delegates. Philly is good. So are New York and Chicago. Let the unions and the black mobs put the fear of God into those delegates. Let the Democrats do some work for a change. Now I want to turn the meeting over to Orrin Hatch.”
Sen. Hatch pulls out a sheaf of papers.
“Gentlemen, back in 1991 I introduced a bill to turn the 1973 American Bar Association report into law. I couldn’t get it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee even though I was the ranking minority member. But I pulled this old chestnut out of a file cabinet in a warehouse yesterday. If you want to read the actual ABA Report, I have a link to a thread on Free Republic – (muttering from the crowd) Yeah, I know, I know. Skip the comments from the whacko-birds and the tea-baggers, and just concentrate on the report. Two Supreme Court decisions give us wide latitude in regulating the amendatory process, and the ABA concluded we could determine the selection of delegates and the conduct of the convention.
“First off, the ABA said that the “One Man/One Vote” decision would apply and that delegates would have to be elected by the people, not appointed by the state legislatures. They recommended that each congressional district elect one delegate to the convention. We’ll have those delegates elected in this year’s presidential election. The primary process will permit the two parties to ensure that only good, sound men will go to Philadelphia or Chicago or New York. No constitutionalists or tea-baggers need apply. If somebody we don’t want looks to be elected, we’ll just pick up the phone and send someone in to block and tackle, and get our man into the end zone. A few paid political announcements and biased reports in the Mainstream Media, and we’ll have the people so scared, they’ll be sure to elect moderates to the convention. Then the Democrats get the mobs prepped, and the rest is easy. Nothing will change, and nobody will ever want to do this again.
“If something we don’t like comes out of the convention, we’ll use our disposal rights under Article V to send it to state ratifying conventions. A few paid political ads, and we’ll kill it at the state level.”
A voice rises from the other end of the table. “What if the convention decides to ignore us and go with their own rules?”
“Well, Lindsay, that would make it an outlaw convention, and anything that would come from it would be an invalid amendment. We would be within our rights under Article V to refuse to dispose of the amendment by making that decision for the states to ratify by legislatures or ratifying conventions. We’re the place where the buck stops. If the convention tries to do an end-run around us and the states actually try to ratify, we’ll direct the Archivist to return those ratifications to the states with a cover letter saying that they ratified an invalid amendment, and their ratifications are null and void. To accept an amendment into the Constitution after ratification, the parliamentary tool is to wrap a Joint Congressional Resolution around it, and if we don’t do that, the buck stops there. We’re in control, and it’s all perfectly legal.”
Another voice is raised. “What if the states go to court?”
“Mitch, that could be a problem. This is all uncharted territory. But we have to claim it as quickly as we can. Possession is nine-tenths, as they say.”
This is where the path bifurcates.
PATH #1
Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Louie Gohmert are unable to rally the people to stop this travesty. Hatch’s 1991 bill is enacted into law and signed by Obama.
Within hours, the attorneys general of all the states that submitted petitions will go to federal court charging that the Dillon and Coleman decisions do not give Congress this kind of latitude. Congress has exceeded its authority and trespassed on the territory of the states. After conflicting decisions from the various circuit courts, the Supreme Court takes the case and makes a 5-4 decision. I don’t know which way it will go.
PATH #2
Congress is stopped by the people and good constitutionalists in the House and Senate. By default, the states decide on their own rules, to include the state legislatures appointing delegates, and the convention is conducted on a “One State/One Vote” basis.
The Attorney General of California goes into federal court requesting an injunction to stop the convention until the issues of One Man versus One State, and delegate appointment versus delegate election, are litigated. The convention is put on hold until the Supreme Court decides in a 5-4 decision. I don’t know which way it will go.
The point I am making is that Congress will do its best to sandbag the process. They’ll call the convention but try to control it. It's how power is protected.
There is little left in the constitution for leftists to warp and soil. At this moment, Obama is actually playing nice. From time to time he pretends respect for our servants in congress, yet he knows all powers are rapidly flowing into his person.
At some point, we are going to get governmental reform, but probably not for the better and not with our consent.
Perhaps it will happen when Obama or a near successor declares himself president-for-life. He will have overwhelming force to back him up. By this, we complete the (Aristotle?) age old cycle of slavery to freedom, freedom back to slavery.
OR
Do we the people, via our states meet peacefully once again to save ourselves?
Thanks for the ping. Can you post or freepmail a link to Georgia’s petition using Mark Levin’s language? TIA.
It would be pointless to hold a convention that is subject of the edits of the Federal government including its ‘courts’.
If California decides 1 man 1 vote applys to convention rather than 1 state 1 vote as was the rule in every other convention and the nature of our union they can sit the convention out. We will not miss them!
A constitutional convention is a convention of the States not people, just as the federal union is first and foremost a union of States not people. This point is absolute critical to conservative/ republican control of the convention.
California can do whatever it wants in California but California or New York are not of authority to tell other states what to do.
If they get their Federal employees in black robes to issue an edict that edict Must be ignored because Federal Employees HAVE NO JURISDICTION over Constitutional Conventions. NOBODY DOES EXCEPT THE ATTENDING DELEGATES! That is the whole point.
“I say we call the convention for a year from now in a city where the people are dependent on government and are willing to intimidate the delegates. Philly is good. So are New York and Chicago. Let the unions and the black mobs put the fear of God into those delegates. “
I say we do it in NORAD for that matter, or maybe the Alabama State Capital, anywhere but Washington or north of the Mason Dixon line.
If we want to hold true to forum we should put it near the Geographical center in Nebraska or Kansas. Maybe one of those states would be so kind as to donate uses of their State Capital. I assume both of them will be attending.
However, I am intrigued at what you present as a watershed event (Post October 1, 2015):
I believe Martin Armstrong to be right. Due to the failure of an ideologue President and Congress to come to terms on the budget, we will see not only a government shutdown, but a default on our national debt. This will set off a worldwide financial panic because our bonds are the collateral of the world banking system.
Obama will cite a clause in the 14th Amendment about the debt of the US not being questioned to assert that he can spend as he wishes without going to Congress. This will be King Charles I versus Parliament all over again. Congress will go to court, and the House will impeach Obama. Some 30 Democrats in the House will vote for impeachment to assert the rights of Congress according to the Constitution. Power will trump party.
I am uncertain as to whether you are positing this as a serious expectation, or just using it as "for example, this could happen" type of scenario. I have read Armstrong on and off for sometime, but may have missed something that he has posted on this scenario, is there a reference?
The reason that I am asking is that I simply don't see such a scenario unfolding around 10/1/15 (or anytime soon). Maybe I am missing something big (and please correct me if I am), but I just see more business as usual coming down the pike.
Whether the Congress and the Ideologue agree on a budget or not, whether there is a brief nominal "government shutdown" or not, I see no plausible scenario in which there is a default on the national debt. Current revenues are at the level that support servicing the debt without fail (it won't always be the case, but it is currently). The Executive would have to make a deliberate decision to order Treasury to *NOT* make the required payments, it would not happen because the funds were not available. (Is this what you expect to happen?)
Additionally, I don't think that the Ideologue will ever have to flail at using that clause of the 14th Amendment as a justification for continued spending, since I believe that the Executive and Congress have found a nifty little method of getting around that whole messiness of a "debt ceiling." Haven't they decided the last 2 (or has it been 3 at this point?) times that they would not bother getting their hands dirty with having to actually vote to raise the debt ceiling? Haven't they decided each time to vote to merely "suspend" the effect of having a debt ceiling?
Maybe I am jaded and cynical (well, no maybes about that!), but I expect that they will follow the same course for the foreseeable future. Hence there will be no default, and spending will continue apace, unrestricted by any anachronistic construct such as a "theoretical debt ceiling!" Hence, there will be no precipitating event occurring around 10/1/2015. (Unless I am really missing something here, if so, please clue me in!!)
But as I said, I do appreciate your scenario and ALL of the contributions that you make here on this vital subject. In short, I suppose that I am saying that I agree that your scenario likely contains a lot of what we will see come to the fore, but I think the timeframe will be much extended, absent some type of precipitating event.