Free Republic

INDIANAPOLIS | Representatives and senators from 29 states met Thursday in the Indiana Statehouse to begin planning for the first state-led revisions to the U.S. Constitution since the nation's fundamental governing document was enacted in 1789. The significance of the work undertaken by The Mount Vernon Assembly to prepare for a future Convention of the States was not lost on the 94 official and participating delegates, mostly Republicans, who filled the House chamber. "Nothing like this has occurred in over two centuries, though certainly the founders of this nation assumed it would have happened long ago," said Indiana Senate President...

State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, will join some 105 delegates from 33 states at the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday and Friday for the second meeting of the Convention of the States planning group dubbed The Mount Vernon Assembly. Arnold did not attend the group's first session in December at George Washington's Virginia estate, but said he jumped at the chance to participate this time when Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, an organizer of the planning group, asked Arnold to join him and state Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, as Indiana's delegation. However, because an Article V convention never has been...

Isn’t it interesting to recall that on November 18, 2011 Mark Levin said he was “happy the balanced budget amendment didn't pass the House because it was a fraud”, and now Mark Levin promotes a fraudulent balanced budget amendment with one of his “liberty amendments” which would make it constitutional for Congress to not balance the annual budget? The two of sections of Mark’s fraudulent balanced budget amendment making it constitutional for Congress to not balance the annual budget are: SECTION 6: Congress may provide for a one-year suspension of one or more of the preceding sections in this Article...

It’s five o’ clock on a weekday morning, and Linda Brickman is up before the Arizona sun. Not one to waste time, she gets to work answering phone calls and emails from the East Coast. Soon the sun is up, reminding her today is another day to work for what she believes in. She leaves to spend the day at the Arizona Legislature, where she spent yesterday, and where she’ll spend tomorrow. “I’m being told on a regular basis that I’m too passionate for what I do,” she said. “But I won’t do something I don’t believe in.” Brickman became...

AP link only. Group eying Convention of the States, constitutional amendments to meet in Indiana in June.

The state legislature of Vermont has approved a call for a constitutional convention. Mark Levin has been noticeably silent on this "success."Why Is Mark Levin Keeping Quiet About Vermont’s Article V Resolution? The New American 10 May 2014 Advocates of an Article V constitutional convention crow about every state legislative body that passes a resolution calling for such a convention. Chief among these cheerleaders is “conservative” talk-show host/entertainer Mark Levin. During his daily radio show, Levin regularly reports on the success of states in signing on to the Article V roster. Curiously, however, there is one recent resolution that...

I recently read with joy a conservative blogger’s attempt to connect the TEA party movement to its historic roots; a topic I have been meaning to write about for months now. The blogger rightly said that the “the historical precedent for the TPM wasn’t the Tea Party event in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.” I actually uttered an “Amen, brother!” He went on to describe the Continental Association established on October 20, 1774 by the First Continental Congress in response to the Intolerable Acts. That’s when I realized that I have waited long enough to write this article. The...

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in his new book, recommends six rewrites to the U.S. Constitution. He would restrict gun ownership to militia members; ban the death penalty; and allow government to set "reasonable limits" on campaign financing, among other things. But Stevens says he's no radical: "I think every one of my proposals is a moderate proposal," Stevens told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week." One of Steven's proposals would add five words to the Second Amendment, which would then read: "...the right of the people to keep and bear...

Momentum for the Convention of States Project has spread from the peach trees of Georgia to the mountains of Alaska to the beaches of Florida. The Alaska Senate passed the Convention of States application (HJR 22) on Saturday by a vote of 12-8, and the Florida House passed the Convention of States application (SM 476) today by a voice vote. Congratulations to our teams in Alaska and Florida! They’ve done a fantastic job and deserve all the credit for this important victory. Thanks to everyone who made a call or wrote an email–your voice was heard, and we’re two steps...

A common concern among Article V opponents is fear that a convention of the states to propose constitutional amendments will result in an oppressive constitution. All we need to do is enforce the constitution we have. Elect the right people to implement our written constitution and all will be well. As logical and appealing as that approach appears to be, it ignores some horrible realities, and actually promotes our headlong dive into tyranny, for the anti-constitution, the unwritten Frankenstein constitution rules. First, aside from the occasional heat politicians take from an outraged populace, our legislative and executive branches in the...

U. S. Constitution

Please consider this an update and a Call to Action on our efforts to get Article V legislation passed here in Arizona: After months of working its way through myriad legislative hoops, SCR1016 passed the House yesterday and is now headed to the Senate for a final vote of the full chamber... no more committees, no more hearings. I am told that the President of the Senate, Andy Biggs, has promised to oppose all attempts to allow a vote on any Article V legislation. Although a reliable conservative on most matters, he has been compromised on this issue by the...

Sarah Palin expressed support for a Convention of States this morning on the Fox News show, “Cashin’ In” with Eric Bolling: “On a state level I think it’s very important that we find candidates and elect them, who would be willing to call for a Convention of States if need be,” she said. ”Because that is the tool the people have to rein in government.” It’s been a great week for liberty. Also, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post George Will endorsed the Article V Convention. As the list of pundits, leaders, and politicians who support a Convention of...

Even with Michigan recently becoming the 34th state to call for a Constitutional Convention, it's not at all certain that a rewrite of the nation's founding document is close at hand... Unless called to deal with a specific issue, some legal experts warn a "runaway" convention could create chaos. "Let's assume that we get Congress to call for a convention, and we are deliberating about one item. Maybe that would stick. But how can you be confident that once you open the door to a constitutional convention, even if for one narrow amendment, that it won't just become a runaway...

I post the following to address a common concern of Freepers who oppose an Article V state convention. The authority to amend the Constitution of the United States is derived from Article V of the Constitution. After Congress proposes an amendment, the Archivist of the United States, who heads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is charged with responsibility for administering the ratification process under the provisions of 1 U.S.C. 106b. The Archivist has delegated many of the ministerial duties associated with this function to the Director of the Federal Register. Neither Article V of the Constitution nor section...

Some Illinois lawmakers are calling for a federal constitutional convention to amend the Constitution in order to allow laws that limit the influence of money in politics. “When the Supreme Court of the United States rules that money is a protected speech and that ordinary people cannot pass common-sense laws because they might dilute the influence of the super-rich, it’s time to change the game,” Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Collins of the 16th District says. …

From the Goldwater Institute ...comes an innovative idea. It would use the Constitution's Article V to move the nation back toward the limited government the Constitution's framers thought their document guaranteed. The Compact for America is the innovation of the Goldwater Institute's Nick Dranias, who proposes a constitutional convention carefully called under Article V to enact a balanced-budget amendment written precisely enough to preclude evasion by the political class.Congress, which relishes deficit spending, would not, unilaterally and unpressured, send this amendment to the states for ratification. Hence the Goldwater Institute's recourse to Article V. It provides, in the same sentence,...

Coincident with ratification of the 1913 amendments to the constitution, New York Senator Elihu Root expressed his concerns in a series of lectures at the alma mater of James Madison, and Woodrow Wilson, Princeton University. He was one of the most respected and influential politicians of the early 20th century. Senator Root spoke freely, without hesitation, the language of our framing generation. As a tidal wave of progressivism swept across America, he clearly feared our overnight transformation from a federal, to a democratic republic. Senator Elihu Root: The Proper Pace of Political Change. (Excerpts): In this country we have set...

To Freepers, our statist government is a daily “fingernails across the chalkboard” experience. Why is Obama able to sweep judicial, and legislative powers into the executive? Why did our national government morph from one designed to protect our freedoms into one of increasing political and social oppression? Why did the federal government generally remain within its Constitutional bounds prior to WWI and not thereafter? Thank the 17th Amendment. Tomorrow is its one hundred and one year anniversary. It fundamentally altered the Constitution; it pulled the keystone from the arch of our Framers’ structure. The structure upon which our freedoms depend...

That the Legislature of the State of Florida does hereby make application to Congress pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States to call an Article V convention for the sole purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States which: Impose fiscal restraints on the Federal Government. Limit the power and jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Limit the terms of office for federal officials and members of Congress. An identical resolution will be considered by the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow.