Save Your Freedom Under the Constitution by Stopping Any Con-Con Calls
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Larry Greenley
John Birch Society
In this era of trillion dollar legislative bills for an economic stimulus that's not working, a government takeover of health care, and cap-and-trade energy taxes to supposedly reduce global warming, millions of Americans are "awakening" to the need to limit the federal government by insisting that Congress adhere to the Constitution. Some of these newly awakened Americans have concluded that amending the Constitution would help get our nation back on track, while forgetting that our biggest problem is that our elected officials already pay little attention to the Constitution's limitations as it is. Why would they pay attention to some new amendments? Instead of working on amending the Constitution, we must first organize a massive educational campaign about the constitutional solutions to our nation's problems in order to create sufficient grassroots understanding to bring about the election of a majority of constitutionalists to Congress.
Meanwhile, some of these newly awakened constitutionalists observe that although Congress will not propose certain amendments that would appear to be useful additions to the Constitution, Article V provides a second way that amendments can be proposed, a constitutional convention (con-con). However, these same newly awakened Americans all too easily overlook the risks involved in a con-con. Click here to view a 36-minute video, "Beware of Article V," that exposes the unacceptable risks that would be involved in convening a constitutional convention at this time in our nation's history.
Furthermore, most Americans are not aware of the successful 25-year campaign by the John Birch Society and other constitutionalist organizations to preserve the Constitution by preventing the calling of a con-con. Click here to read "Dangers of a Constitutional Convention," which will bring you up to date on this campaign. This article also includes two color-coded maps: (1) showing the high water mark of the movement to call a con-con based on the desire for a balanced budget amendment; and (2) showing the eleven states (also joined by a twelfth state, Wyoming in 2009) where the state legislature has voted to rescind all previous calls for a con-con.
On November 10, 2009, Professor Kevin Gutzman promoted the idea of a constitutional convention during his appearance on the Glenn Beck TV Show. Here's the video:
Even though Glenn Beck has posted an excellent
position statement on his website in opposition to calling a constitutional convention, several guests on his FoxNews show in 2009 have also promoted the con-con concept.
Click here to read "Another Endorsement of a Constitutional Convention on Glenn Beck." This article includes a link to video of Gutzman's appearance as well as links to the "Beware of Article V" video and "Dangers of a Constitutional Convention" article referred to above.
In a nutshell, the majority of constitutional scholars agree that an Article V constitutional convention cannot be restricted as to what amendments it would consider and ultimately propose, which means that the delegates to such a convention would be free to consider a whole range of changes to our Constitution as well as even considering a whole new constitution. Given the present state of understanding of the Constitution among the American electorate, it is inadvisable to convene a body of delegates with such broad powers to revise our Constitution. After this constitutional convention would "propose amendments," the amendment(s) would then be submitted to the states (either legislatures or special state conventions according to the Constitution, but possibly some other means proposed by the constitutional convention itself following the precedent of our original Constitutional Convention in specifying the means for ratification of the Constitution) for ratification. Although 3/4s of the states would have to ratify an amendment for it to become part of the Constitution, there is still the all-too-real risk that a harmful amendment or series of amendments could be ratified due to the extraordinary influence exerted on American voters and their representatives by powerful elites in our news media, government, educational institutions, and foundations.
Starting in late 2008 and continuing on through 2009 there have been several individuals and organizations that have decided to make the calling of a constitutional convention a top priority, and have begun contacting state legislators throughout the nation to support their project.
Preserving the Constitution from the threat represented by calling a con-con will require the hard work of constitutionalists throughout the United States. Personal contact through office visits and phone calls are a must (
Click here for contact information for your state legislators.). Your tools include "Beware of Article V" (
free online and as a
DVD), "Dangers of a Constitutional Convention" (
free online and as a
reprint), "Another Endorsement of a Constitutional Convention on Glenn Beck" (
free online), and "Model State Con-Con Rescission Resolution" (
free online). If you'd like to join with others in your state to help prevent any con-con call, or where appropriate to help bring about a rescission of all previous con-con calls, go to the
JBS.org Freedom Campaign - National group, join the group (requires registration), and send a message to the group's creator.
To supplement the necessary personal contacts mentioned above,
click here to send a prewritten, editable email message in opposition to a con-con to your state legislators. While email messages cannot equal the impact and effectiveness of personal contacts, they can play a role in an overall campaign. Please be sure to personalize your emails for maximum impact.
A constitutional convention has been prevented from being called over the past 25 years through the hard work of members of the John Birch Society and like-minded groups and individuals in personally contacting their state legislators of both parties and making them aware of the risks involved in calling a con-con. This is truly a nonpartisan issue. Whenever the time has been taken to present the risks associated with a constitutional convention to state legislators, the majority of both parties have voted against calling for a con-con. Not only have no additional state legislatures called for a con-con for the past 25 years, legislators in 12 states have become so thoroughly convinced of the dangers of a constitutional convention that they have voted to rescind (repeal) all previous con-con calls in their states.
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For further information please refer to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
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