runaway convention Archives - Independence Institute

Yes, the Constitution was adopted legally 0
- May 17, 2017
An old myth has showed up in the media again: the myth that delegates to the 1787 Constitution Convention violated their trust—that they produced a new constitution although empowered only to propose amendments to the Articles of Confederation. Fortunately, the claim that the 1787 convention had no authority to propose a new constitution is pure
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"Runaway Convention" Nonsense—One More Time 0
- August 12, 2015
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 this sort of alarmism, partly because it is so patently
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A Response to the “Runaway Scenario”0
- February 15, 2013
NOTE: This is an updated version of an essay first published in 2013. For a comprehensive treatment of the law of Article V, see State Initiation of Constitutional Amendments: A Guide for Lawyers and Legislative Drafters (4th ed. 2016) and more recent postings on this website. Many lawmakers and activists, and most of the public,
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A Response to Professor Seidman 0
- January 4, 2013
Should we acknowledge that the U.S. Constitution is filled with “archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions,” and “extricat[e] ourselves from constitutional bondage” by cashiering the document? “As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken,” argues Louis Michael Seidman, tasked with
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