Texas House passes Convention of States application

The Texas House passed the Convention of States resolution (HJR 77) today by a vote of 80-62!

We couldn't be prouder of our team in Texas -- they responded to our call to action, overwhelming the Texas legislature with calls and emails of support. This victory would have been impossible without their dedication, patriotism, and tenacity.

Next our resolution will move to the Texas Senate. Be looking for a specific call to action within the next few days explaining exactly who to contact and what to say!

For over two centuries, Congress has held to two unwritten standards: the Single Subject Standard and the Contemporaneousness Standard. As Congress views it, the states may request a single subject convention, or a general convention open to all subjects. (There are 2 applications for a general convention left over from 1789.) By the basic principles of contract law, the convention is the agent of the states, and the states are the principals. An agent cannot go outside his agency agreement with his principals, and thus a single subject convention would be forbidden by the principles of contract law to go outside its purview. To make sure the purview is understood, when Congress sets the time and place for a convention, it extracts the language from the states' applications and inserts it into the convention call.

Congress has delegated the power of tabulating applications from the states to the Office of the Archivist of the United States. The Archivist maintains a spreadsheet by state (row) and subject (column). When a column reaches the two thirds threshold, now 34 states, the Archivist sends a memo to Congress that it needs to call a convention.

Every member of Congress believes in the Single Subject and Contemporaneousness standards. So do most, if not all, federal judges. So do most law professors.

There is a small minority in the legal profession that believes that the two standards are unconstitutional and that all conventions are general. No state has ever gone to federal court to challenge the two standards. One individual, William Walker of Auburn, WA, did so in 2000, but the federal courts refused to hear his case because he lacked standing. (I spent two years editing Walker's brief in Walker v. US.)

So as it stands, there is a 277 year old unwritten congressional precedent that covers this, and no one has ever been able to adjudicate it.

> “Here is one way-remember Indiana and the law Restoration of Freedom of Religion. Under continuous demonization of the left Indiana caved. Republicans lack courage.”

Not true, not at all.

That was the governor, Pence, you referred, not the state legislature. It was the legislature that passed it and sent it to him for signature. The Indiana legislature has courageous conservatives that are in control.

The Convention of States does not require any action or influence from any governor. Governors and courts are excluded. So governors such as Pence will have no say.

Your example fails.

As for the 66 legislative bodies, yes they are controlled by conservatives as the wave that just arived were not backed by national establishment republicans. They are not given attention and they are abandoned by the national party. The grassroots base is hardly linked anymore to the national party.

Some old power brokers and players can and do impede the conservative members that control the ‘content’ of the legislation. But these few have their hand on the ‘flow’, not the ‘content’.

Just today the COS reports that Kansas is ready to overwhelmingly vote for the COS application yet the speaker of their house is stalling the vote for no reason other than he is ‘owned’, just like Boehner is owned’ in Congress. But they do not control the content of the legislation, they are like retired cops directing traffic and most are not paying attention, yet.

It’s a process and the Conservatives that are in control take note and do not give up as they execute contingency plans. That Speaker in Kansas is going to get with the program eventually or be excluded or retired; same with Boehner and any others showing their true colors. It does not go unnoticed.

There are many frauds that call themselves conservative, like McConnell. McConnell can only last so long trying to thwart Conservatives while maintaining he himself is conservative. We are assured he does not survive in his ‘leadership’ after the 2016 elections, especially now that Bevin will be KY governor, because now Bevin will get control of the KY power brokers that were backing McConnell; they will be turned around.

These situations and events will play out in every legislative body across the country because now people are awake.

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