by WorldTribune Staff, February 24, 2022
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution two thirds of the states can call a convention to propose amendments.
Wisconsin and Nebraska have in the last month passed resolutions to hold an Article V convention. That brings the total to 17 of the 34 states needed to trigger the event, Valerie Richardson reported for The Washington Times on Feb. 23.
Convention of States Action President Mark Meckler said a resolution would have Congress call a convention of states limited to proposing constitutional amendments to “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.”
The Article V resolution "is making headway in Kansas, South Carolina, West Virginia and even deep-blue Massachusetts," Richardson noted.
“Look, on both sides of the aisle, people believe that Washington, D.C., is completely out of control,” Meckler said. “They might believe it for different reasons, but when it was a Trump administration, Democrats were furious, and when it was a Biden administration, Republicans were furious. Everybody knows D.C. is out of control, and everybody wants D.C. out of their business.”
For any amendment from the Article V convention to pass, it would need the support of 26 states to begin the ratification process. As with amendments introduced by Congress, two-thirds of the states, or 38, would be required for ratification.
Only 17 amendments have been added to the Constitution since the original 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights were ratified in 1791.
“I hear this all the time, that we’re going to destroy the Second Amendment, that California’s going to take away the Second Amendment,” said Meckler. “I just do the math for people: If it takes 38 states to ratify, that means it takes only 13 states to stop it. That means just one house in each of the most conservative 13 states in America.”
The only constitutional convention in U.S. history was held in 1787, when delegates replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution.
Meckler said this may be the perfect time for a convention of states, given what he calls the “great decoupling that’s starting to take place.”
“The idea that we’re all the same and we can all be governed by a central government: That belies our history,” Meckler said. “The country’s never been that way. It wasn’t founded that way. The government wasn’t structured that way. And so I think what we’re doing right now is just going back to our history, and if we do it correctly, if we do it in a healthy way where the country will survive, it drives us directly back to federalism.”
