Free Republic

The plan lays out nine specific proposed amendments that would: Prohibit congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state. Require Congress to balance its budget. Prohibit administrative agencies from creating federal law. Prohibit administrative agencies from pre-empting state law. Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution. Give state officials the...

Senator Marco Rubio's recent support for an Article V Convention of the States is causing some folks heartburn. Noah Rothman at Commentary calls Rubio's support for a Convention of the States a Pander for the Ages. Rather than taking Rubio at his word and assuming this is a principled stand, Rothman argues that Rubio's support for the Convention of the States is a politically strategic rouse. As a political maneuver, Rubio’s latest is a deft one. Hardened by influential talk show hosts who have spent months inveighing against his support of a 2013 immigration reform bill, Rubio will need to...

The United States of America that we grew up in, and in some cases fought for, no longer exists. I would like to write something stirring in defense of our Constitution, but it isn’t under attack. It is simply ignored. Some have proposed that we have a Constitutional convention to add new amendments. What would that accomplish? Would our present Federal government respect a set of new amendments when they don’t respect the old ones? What good does it do to insist on one’s rights as a citizen, when in fact mere citizenship has lost its meaning?

Even hundred-year tides peak and turn, as all political tides must. The red tide that we are now riding is strong enough, if properly channeled, to permanently alter the political landscape. In our system of government, and in our situation, that means amendment of the Constitution, something not achieved by the previous Republican hundred-year tide of 1920. The Ryan-McConnell Congress, with its omnibus spending capitulation, has conclusively demonstrated that it lacks the stomach for the types of constitutional reform that will be possible after the 2016 election. It's not the leadership so much as the members. The Chamber of Commerce...

Mark Levin is one of the smartest scholars on the United States Constitution and I trust his opinion. Having said that,every once in a while he will indicate that the 17th is not his favorite amendment to our U.S. Constitution and this got me to thinking about how our country has been affected by this one - both good and bad. While there are a number of seemingly entrenched Senators we could do with changing, due at least in part to name recognition by LIVs and misleading TV ads, I'm not at all sure state legislatures could or would do...

I read earlier today that part of the Campus million student march and one of their "demands" is a change in the constitution to benefit black people. Two years ago I thought the Article V process was going too slow. Now I'm thinking that unless the Scope of the Article V convention is specific I.E changes to the 17th amendment regarding the election of Senators for Congress, then I rather not go forward at all. What happens if say NY passes the Article V but includes demands for revisions to say the 2nd amendment, or VA or IL demanding changes...

Has any of the Republican primary candidates mention support or no support of Article V convention? I'm disappointed it's not part of somebodies Stump speech. Is it that the issue is little understood? Any ideas on how any of the candidates stand on the issue?

Our Constitution details both duties and discretions to its member states and three branches of government. Duties involve commands that must be obeyed, while the exercise of discretionary power is of course, optional. For instance, Congress has the option to implement enumerated, delegated powers such as those in Article I Section 8. Congress does not have to write statutes involving taxation, commerce, naturalization, post offices & post roads, etc. It may do so as it sees fit. These are specific grants of power from We the People, which when used as intended, facilitate the general welfare and blessings of Liberty....

The Constitution was to be our republican house, our shelter from tyranny. Its four load bearing walls were the three federal branches plus the state governments. This structure in turn was protected from the harsh elements of despotism by a roof composed of ten recognized, God-given and societal rights. Various interior design details in the form of enumerated powers and those prohibited to the states, made for prosperous living to a free people. Since 1913 we have largely failed to maintain our home. What began as seemingly minor alterations to the structure, beginning with the 17th Amendment, rot was introduced...

If I wanted to surreptitiously prevent an Article V State Amendments Convention, I would plant a seed in the media that state legislatures must submit to congress, identical or near identical applications that deal with a particular topic. For instance, should ten states apply to balance the national budget, and another ten applied to enact congressional term limits, while another ten sought repeal of the 17th Amendment, I would inform congress and the media that only ten of the required thirty-four (two-thirds) applications had been presented. Obviously, this is an easy sell to congress; there is little reason for congress...

In July 2015, Professor Rob Natelson, one of the nation’s leading Article V experts, crafted an initial draft of rules for a Convention of the States along with Convention of States Project co-founder, Michael Farris. Since then, members of the Convention of States Caucus -- a group of 200+ state legislators from 40 states, all united in their support of an Article V Convention of States -- have been invited to review Natelson’s rules and provide input. The following is the latest iteration of those rules as of September 2015. When a Convention of States is called, these rules will...

Forty-nine percent of people asked in a new Gallup survey say the federal government poses "an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens," and another 19 percent say the federal government is too big in general and puts forth too many laws. Though this sentiment has been felt by generally the same percentage of Americans for the past five years, fewer than a third of those asked (30 percent) believed it when they were first asked in 2003. Another 15 percent of those asked worry the federal government violates too many freedoms and civil liberties, while 13...

Conservative media frequently features post mortems on the American Republic, why the greatest experiment in free government failed. Our demise is attributed to various causes, but the most common accusation centers on our collective failure to keep the republic. Part I established why the states should immediately gather in an Article V amendments convention to restore the American Republic. The convention could remain a permanent institutional feature of the American governing scene by never adjourning sine die, and resolve to meet, for instance, on a particular day the following year. We have little choice but to press our states to...

To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, when it becomes necessary for a people to alter a course of events deemed destructive to the preservation of liberty, any available legitimate means to accomplish this should be wholeheartedly embraced and pursued in all due earnest. The Constitution of the United States of America has been hollowed out. It is a dead letter. Even with its myriad of checks and balances the Constitution is not ultimately self-enforcing. But fortunately, the Founding Fathers in their great wisdom enabled “We the People” to reclaim our constitutionally secured rights in just such a situation as we...

American style hard tyranny isn't conjecture; it is here and will get worse if we do not reclaim powers stolen from, and rights denied to us by the Uniparty apparatus. Our highest institutions, including the electoral process, have been corrupted to the point they serve ends opposite to those intended, and are therefore incapable of restoring freedom. The question to be answered is, “How shall we reclaim liberty?” We must appeal to first principles, to eternal truths that span time from the Creation to this very moment. One of those truths is that the only legitimate powers of government are...

Our governing system no longer serves its intended purpose, that being “to secure the blessings of liberty.” In fact, any casual read of the Constitution reveals our government’s wholesale departure from the genius of the Founders. Congress sloughs off or re-assigns its responsibility to craft legislation, determine spending, ratify treaties, oversee the executive branch and regulate the judicial. No longer content with rewriting statutes, SCOTUS increasingly elevates itself above God; its Obergefell v. Hodges ruling which assigned to homosexuals the fundamental right of marriage, is only the latest outrage among many. The decisions of Executive branch agencies mirror the demands...

Our governing system no longer serves its intended purpose, to secure the blessings of liberty. Any casual read of the Constitution reveals our government’s wholesale departure from it. Congress gaffs off or assigns its duties to craft legislation, determine spending, ratify treaties, oversee the executive branch, and regulate the judicial branch. Not being content with rewriting statutes, Scotus increasingly elevates itself above God; its Obergefell v. Hodges ruling is only the latest outrage among many. Executive branch agencies reflect the will of one man, Obama, and not congressional statutes. In response, there is a small but growing minority of Americans...

On July 31 at the American Bar Association’s International Human Rights Award Luncheon, former Justice John Paul Stevens declared that, while the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment establishes a right to “gay marriage,” it does not protect an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.... I marvel at Stevens’ ability to reject an application of the Fourteenth Amendment to a right clearly enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution (viz., “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” in the Second Amendment) while affirming its application to a supposed right not elsewhere even remotely alluded to in the...

In our last guest essay for Coach is Right we made an opening case for Article V state amendment conventions, rather than SCOTUS, to deal with major social and governing issues. It is through state conventions rather than the elastic whims of nine unaccountable lawyers that the Framers envisioned a free people would keep and improve their republic. Enlightenment philosophers recognized that whereas power is aggressive, liberty is passive. Unless it is actively pursued, liberty will always fade in the face of encroaching power. Our Framing generation knew this and provided the means by which liberty could be actively defended....

How do you know when a presidential candidate is being deceptive? No, silly, not when his or her lips are moving. Candidates often tell the truth -- like when they say they want your vote or your money. Moving lips are not a reliable clue. So what is? Any statement that envisions an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. _Politicians often act as though the Constitution is a sacred text handed down from heaven, like the Bible. Unlike the Bible, though, they have all sorts of recommendations for improving it. These proposals fall into two general categories: hopeless fantasies and pathetic...