The Impending "Convention for Proposing Amendments" — Part II
Note: This series of six articles originally appeared in the Washington Post’s “Volokh Conspiracy,” a leading constitutional law website. Part I appears below, and Parts III-VI will be posted in the coming weeks. How Article V was Drafted and Ratified The commissioners who met in Philadelphia to propose a plan to render the American […]
The Impending “Convention for Proposing Amendments” — Part II
Note: This series of six articles originally appeared in the Washington Post’s “Volokh Conspiracy,” a leading constitutional law website. Part I appears below, and Parts III-VI will be posted in the coming weeks. How Article V was Drafted and Ratified The commissioners who met in Philadelphia to propose a plan to render the American political […]
The Constitution’s Article V, Not the 10th Amendment, Gives State Legislatures Their Power in the Amendment Process
Note: An earlier version of this article appeared in The American Thinker. Some advocates of a convention for proposing amendments are endangering the Article V movement by claiming the states can use the Tenth Amendment to control the convention process. They are doing so even though the judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court, has held […]
The Impending “Convention for Proposing Amendments” – Part I
Note: This is Part I of a six-part series I wrote on Amendment Conventions for the Washington Post’s “Volokh Conspiracy,” a leading constitutional law website. Links have not been reproduced, because all supporting information is on this website and can be found with by word search. * * * * How Past Conventions Inspired the […]
Rob Explains Why We Need a Convention of States
Soros-Funded Groups Attack the Article V Movement
Article V activists have had to deal with the defamatory, and potentially actionable, charge that they are supported by socialist billionaire George Soros. As far as I can determine, however, no one in the movement has been able to identify any pro-Article V Soros money at all. On the contrary, Soros-funded groups have repeatedly assailed […]
The Silver Lining in the Mistakes at the Assembly of State Legislatures
Note: This article was first published in the American Thinker. The Assembly of State Legislatures (ASL) has adjourned from its latest meeting, still without having produced a set of rules for an Article V amendments convention. I have been an enthusiastic supporter of ASL. I have to acknowledge, however, that missteps have impeded its progress. […]
Answering Questions About the Voting Rules at a Convention for Proposing Amendments
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 […]
Trying to Alter the Traditional Amendments Convention Voting Rule Is a Mistake
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 […]
Still More Evidence That An Amendments Convention is a "Convention of States"
The term “convention of states” (or “convention of the states”) dates at least from the year 1780. By 1788 it was being applied specifically to a convention for proposing amendments under the new Constitution. Throughout the 19th century, the phrase “convention of states” was probably the most common way to denominate an Article V convention—even […]
How A Famous English Convention Clarifies the Role of a Convention of States
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 […]
Term Limits for the Supreme Court?
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 […]
