Free Republic

We’ve taken some big hits recently. It appears our “leaders” in Washington, DC have all surrendered to the godless liberal/progressives and have decided to turn our society inside out and upside down. Congress running interference for Obama was bad enough, now we have the Supreme Court trampling on the constitution as well.When all three branches ignore the constitution we have a serious problem. The wimps in congress have proven over and over that they don’t have the will to fight and it’s now painfully obvious that the supremes are not willing to do their constitutional duty either.Government has failed us....

In Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges he said, “It is of no special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of nine lawyers on the Supreme Court.” Whatever one’s views on marriage, our Founders made it clear that the federal government is a child of the states -- not the other way around. The Supreme Court’s decision to legislate from the bench on a matter rightly...

THE SOLUTION Now it is clear more than ever that the Federal Government needs to be checked BY THE PEOPLE AND THE STATES. Neither morality nor common sense can be 'legislated' via Congress ***effectively***. It just cannot be done adequately. We need our states to assert AS SOON AS POSSIBLE their Article V constitutional right to AMEND OUR US CONSTITUTION, Article VThe Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments,...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two legislators propose that Ohio join in a call for the states to meet and amend the U.S. Constitution to rein in federal authority and spending power. Republican Rep. Christina Hagan of Stark County and Democratic Rep. Bill Patmon of Cleveland, introduced a resolution calling for a convention of states, as outlined in Article V of the Constitution, that would allow state delegations to meet. Their resolution calls specifically for debate on federal spending, the range of power and jurisdiction of the federal government and limited terms for federal officers. "The intent of the resolution is to...

"The Congress, the courts, and the president ignore the Constitution we have today and our Founders knew we would eventually get to that point, and they gave us a method… to amend it to keep the federal government limited in its scope and its jurisdiction," The method he is referring to is Article V of the U.S. Constitution. As conservatives have grown increasingly frustrated with the ability of judges and politicians to limit the power of Washington, the idea of convincing states to exercise this power has gained appeal. A project known as the Convention of the States has gained...

Kansas’s Convention of States application is hanging in the wind as the session is wrapping up. We have identified individuals that are actively trying to stop HCR5010 from coming to a vote prior to the legislature convening. These individuals have bought into the fear of somehow our Founding Fathers put a device in our Constitution that is never to be used. They believe the fear mongers that somehow despite the words in the Constitution that gives an Article V Convention only one power (to propose amendments), that somehow this state run body will rewrite the entire constitution and we will...

We send good conservative people to Washington, DC. Most go wobbly, rino or worse. Oppression is on the rise. Institutions that worked so well to keep us free for so long are powerless to stop a rampaging executive branch. What happened? We stopped maintaining our republic. There isn’t a worldly creation that doesn’t need continual upkeep and renewal. Without regular maintenance to our marriages, autos, homes, bodies and souls, they will degrade and eventually cease to operate, or will ill-serve their intended purposes. Everything not consciously maintained and reinvigorated will degrade and spoil. The ancients were aware of this as...

Maine recently joined 35 other states this year in filing the Convention of States (COS) resolution calling for an Article V convention limited to proposing amendments that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limits terms of office for its officials and members of Congress. The Convention of States Project now holds the record for filing the most identical Article V resolutions in a single year --and it demonstrates that state legislators are realizing their power to correct our nation’s most pressing problems through this long-neglected constitutional process. As Alexander...

A couple of prominent conservatives have expressed concern over the possibility of a ‘runaway’ Article V state amendments convention. Such is their anxiety that runaway tyranny from Rome-on-the-Potomac pales in comparison to the possible horrors of the states getting together to relieve their people from oppression. Are these concerns fact based or irrational or somewhere in between? An important, and likewise extra-congressional vestige of the federal system of 1787, and quite similar to an Article V state amendments convention in its constitutional foundation remains in force today. It is the familiar Electoral College (EC). Like the state amendments convention, the...

Sovereignty is defined as the source from which all governing authority flows. A visitor to America, say a modern Alexis de Tocqueville, might conclude that America is a despotism. Considering we have presidential elections every four years, our imaginary visitor could refine his observations and determine America 2015 to be an elective despotism. And why not? Obama’s speeches ooze with “I” and “me.” His cabinet secretaries and party have demonstrated loyalty to his person and not the Constitution. Notwithstanding his oath of office, which is a solemn promise to see that the laws be faithfully executed, he pledged to fundamentally...

WASHINGTON -- You won't hear it too much from official Washington, but America's finances are in big trouble. When you add up $18 trillion of debt, a dysfunctional Congress and activist judges taking power from the people, you get frustration and an attitude of enough is enough. Now one group is taking action in the form of a project called Convention of States. Conservative legal scholar Michael Farris heads it up. "Washington, D.C. will never fix itself and we have to have a solution from a different direction," Farris told CBN News. That direction is to amend the Constitution by...

It’s a pity the Russians didn’t enforce the constitution they had. The Soviet Constitution shared more than a few similarities with the US constitution. The rights to property, private correspondence, freedom of religion & conscience, equality before the law, and the right to earn/keep earnings and to leave inheritances are there. All considered, it wasn’t bad for peoples who had only known Mongol hordes and Czars for the past thousand years. Despite these guarantees, the Soviet Union was a slave state from its inception. How could oppression have lived side-by-side recognized assurances of so many personal rights? Slavery was certain...

Leaders of movement to rein in federal spending set sights on Virginia state Sen. Richard Black Conservative activists pushing to amend the Constitution to rein in federal spending are preparing to delve into state legislative elections across the country, specifically targeting Republicans who are standing in the way of a convention of the states. “Our attitude is if state legislators won’t stand against Washington, D.C., then they need to be replaced by somebody who will,” Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance and a leader of the state convention movement, told The Washington Times in an interview this week. Mr....

Some men saw what was coming. Coincident with ratification of the 17th Amendment to the constitution, New York Senator Elihu Root expressed his concerns in a series of lectures at the alma mater of James Madison, 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...

There is nothing in which the generality of mankind are so much mistaken as when they talk of government. The different effects of it are obvious to everyone, but few can trace its causes. Most men having undigested ideas of the nature of it, and attribute all public miscarriages to the corruption of mankind. They think the whole mass is infected, that it’s impossible to make any reformation, and so submit patiently to their country’s calamities, or else share in the spoil. Whereas complaints of this kind are as old as the world, and every age has thought their own...

Conservative state legislators frustrated with the gridlock in Washington are increasingly turning to a plan to call a convention to consider a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution — an event that would be unprecedented in American history and one that could, some opponents predict, lead to complete political chaos. Legislators in 27 states have passed applications for a convention to pass a balanced budget amendment. Proponents of a balanced budget requirement are planning to push for new applications in nine other states where Republicans control both chambers of the legislature. If those applications pass in seven of the nine...

Checks and balances. If you’re frustrated by the refusal of Congress to stop its fiscal insanity – and how could you not be? – it’s time to start realizing that the Constitution gives states and the people more power over Congress than most realize. And right now there is an effort called the Article V Initiative that would wield and deploy that power. Most people don’t know, because they have never been taught, that Article V of the Constitution empowers the people through their state legislatures to propose amendments. Specifically, Article V proscribes a process in which two-thirds of state...

Someone recently asked, “Why is it that the John Birch Society is so opposed to an Article V amendment convention today despite the fact that they have been supporters of amending the Constitution since back in the 70s?” That’s a darned good question. It a matter of history that Robert Welch, the first president of the John Birch Society, welcomed those who would repeal the 16th Amendment (the progressive income tax) into the society and made their cause a part of JBS lore. In 1975, Larry McDonald, then a Democrat U.S. Representative from Georgia, who went on to become the...

Soros, Birchers fight constitutional fix to limit Obama, Congress Convention of States March 16, 2015 A nationwide drive by mostly conservative states to throttle President Obama and Washington's grab for more power and taxes is running into an odd left-right combo of opposition: Liberal financier George Soros and the conservative John Birch Society. Documents provided to Secrets show that the Soros-backed Montana Budget and Policy Center recently urged the state's lawmakers to reject the so-called "convention of states" pushed by advocates such as radio talk show host Mark Levin as a way to pass constitutional amendments limiting the power...

If only the Founders were as smart and trustworthy as today’s politicians, then we wouldn’t have all the problems we see nowadays.” No, that’s not a talking point from anti-gun nanny staters like BILLIONAIRE anti-gun activist Michael Bloomberg or even President Obama. I’m afraid it’s pure snake oil being peddled by professional “conservative” charlatans -- with help from a handful of political celebrities who should know better -- demanding a state-initiated Article V Constitutional Convention. I’ve ignored the Constitutional Convention con (more aptly named "Con-Con") job until now -- hoping and praying it would just fall flat before it gained...