Answering Questions About the Voting Rules at a Convention for Proposing Amendments

All Postings, amendment applications, amendments convention, Article 5, Article V, balanced budget, balanced budget amendment, CONSTITUTION, constitutional amendment, constitutional law, convention for proposing amendments, convention of states, Natelson Rob, original intent, original meaning, original understanding, originalism, Rob Natelson, supreme court, The Founding |

Note: This column appeared originally at the American Thinker.
In a recent post, I examined suggestions that a convention of the states for proposing amendments adopt a supermajority rule for proposing any amendment. Most commonly suggested is that the convention replace the traditional “majority of states decides” standard with a two thirds requirement.
I explained that this […]

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Trying to Alter the Traditional Amendments Convention Voting Rule Is a Mistake

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Note: This article first appeared in The American Thinker.
Advocates of a federal balanced budget amendment are closing in on the 34 states necessary to require Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments. Other groups, such as the Convention of States project, are working assiduously toward the same goal. If they succeed, it will a […]

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How A Famous English Convention Clarifies the Role of a Convention of States

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Note: This article first appeared on the American Thinker website.
In the Anglo-American constitutional tradition, a “convention” can mean a contract, but the word is more often applied to an assembly, other than a legislature, convened to address ad hoc political problems. The “Convention for proposing Amendments” authorized by Article V of the Constitution is designed […]

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Term Limits for the Supreme Court?

All Postings, amendment applications, amendments convention, Article 5, Article V, CONSTITUTION, constitutional amendment, constitutional convention, constitutional law, convention for proposing amendments, convention of states, Natelson Rob, original intent, original meaning, original understanding, originalism, ratification of constitution, Rob Natelson, supreme court, The Founding |

This article first appeared in the American Thinker.
Term limits are among the reforms being proposed by advocates of curbing federal government abuses through the Constitution’s Article V amendment process.
The idea of congressional term limits has been around for some time. But more recent discussion centers on term limits for the judiciary, especially for the Supreme […]

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“Runaway Convention” Nonsense—One More Time

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Seldom has a claim so weak been so often advanced than the claim that a convention for proposing amendments would be a “constitutional convention” that could “run away”—that is, disregard its limits and propose amendments outside its sphere of authority.
I have little patience with the theory, partly because it is so patently based on ignorance […]

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A Convention of States in “Gone With the Wind”

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Margaret Mitchell, the author of the hugely popular novel Gone With the Wind, was a newspaper reporter and the child of a family steeped in history. Her father, a prominent Georgia attorney, was one of the leading lights in the state historical society.
That her book has a plethora of references to historical events occurring during […]

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Wisdom From A Framer on Federalism, Guns, and the Amendment Process

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This article was first published on CNS News.
A newly published speech by one of our Framers offers important clues to the constitutional role of the states, of the right to keep and bear arms, and of the amendment process.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton represented Maryland at the Constitutional Convention. After the convention was over, he advocated […]

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More Evidence That Warren Burger Was Defending Roe v. Wade When He Opposed A Convention of States

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More evidence has turned up that the late Chief Justice Warren Burger was defending his Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade when he wrote three letters opposing the Article V convention process.
Burger’s letters frequently are cited as authority by opponents of a “convention of states.” However, in an earlier posting I noted that the […]

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What is An Amendments Convention? A Quick Intro

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Are you a journalist or other citizen who needs a quick overview of the Constitution’s Article V “Convention for Proposing Amendments?” Get our issue paper, “Curing Federal Dysfunction by Constitutional Amendment: A Primer.”
It’s a vital resource for anyone who wants a quick and accurate overview of the process.
It explains what a Convention for Proposing Amendments […]

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Where Chief Justice Burger Likely Got His Anti-Amendment Convention Views

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This article originally appeared in the American Thinker.
Opponents of the Constitution’s Article V convention method of proposing amendments tout three letters written in the 1980s by former Chief Justice Warren Burger. In those letters, Burger took a very hard line against any convention of states that might bypass Congress and propose corrective constitutional amendments.
I’ve previously […]

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Mike Stern Rebuts Claim that “Congress would control a convention”

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Article V scholar and former House of Representatives legal counsel Mike Stern has just written a response to the irresponsible claim that Congress could control a Convention for Proposing Amendments, either by specifying how commissioners are allocated or in other ways.
His response is worth wide publicity. Here it is:
RESPONSE TO FEBRUARY 24, 2015 PAPER ENTITLED […]

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Article V Opponents Now Peddling Article 23 Years Out of Date

All Postings, amendment applications, amendments convention, Article 5, Article V, balanced budget, balanced budget amendment, CONSTITUTION, constitutional amendment, constitutional convention, constitutional law, convention for proposing amendments, Natelson Rob, original intent, original meaning, originalism, ratification of constitution, Rob Natelson, The Founding |

The latest tactic in Article V opponents’ game of “Whac-A-Mole”* is the circulation of an article 23 years out of date.
The article was published in 1992 and is entitled A New Constitutional Convention? Critical Look at Questions Answered, and Not Answered, by Article Five of the United States Constitution. It was authored by John Eidsmoe.
The […]

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