AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
June 25, 2024
Issue
What Would Happen if We Opened Up the US Constitution?
Details
Yes, this is lengthy, but please read it in its entirety! Can you imagine a constitutional convention being held in today’s world with the powerful influence that the mainstream and social media have? There are several efforts in place to call for such a convention. Even though those pushing this idea are using the term “convention of states”, it is actually a constitutional convention!
According to Black’s Law Dictionary, a constitutional convention is:
“A duly constituted assembly of delegates or representatives of the people of a state or nation for the purpose of framing, revising, OR amending its constitution. Art. V of U.S. Const. provides that a Constitutional Convention may be called on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the states.”
So, yes, it is a constitutional convention and during the 70’s and 80’s those behind this effort actually used the words constitutional convention. Around 2011 Americans began recognizing the dangers of calling a constitutional convention, so those pushing the idea rebranded their effort and began calling it a “convention of states”. Different terminology, but same thing! There are several proposed bills out there calling for a “convention of states”, but SR 77 has gone the furthest. It has passed the Senate State Government Committee and is “a concurrent resolution calling for a “Convention of States” otherwise known as a Convention for Proposing Amendments.” The sponsors say their resolution is limited and the language protects against a runaway convention, but how does it? The co-sponsorship memo says, “A Convention will create the needed opportunity for states to hold the federal government accountable to the Constitution and the voices of the people.”
Even though the resolutions proposed in the state legislature are limited in scope, once a convention is called, there is no way for State Legislatures to limit or control the business of the convention itself!
Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution already limits the federal government to 18 powers. The 10th Amendment says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.”
Did you know that in 1787 Congress met to amend the Articles of Confederation because they had proven to be too weak? What happened? They scrapped the Articles and came up with an entirely new document called the US Constitution! God intervened in that case and guided our Founding Fathers to write the document we live under today.
Founding Fathers George Washington and Alexander Hamilton opposed another constitutional convention. In fact, James Madison on November 2, 1788, in a letter to George Turberville wrote:
“If a General Convention were to take place for the avowed and sole purpose of revising the Constitution, it would naturally consider itself as having a greater latitude than the Congress […] it would be courted by the most violent partizans on both sides [… and] would no doubt contain individuals of insidious views, who under the mask of seeking alterations popular in some parts but inadmissible in other parts of the Union might have a dangerous opportunity of sapping the very foundations of the fabric.”
Madison, continued, saying, “Having witnessed the difficulties and dangers experienced by the first Convention which assembled under every propitious circumstance, I should tremble forthe result of a Second, meeting in the present temper of America and under all the disadvantages I have mentioned.”
Barry Goldwater warned: “if we hold a constitutional convention, every group in the country — majority, minority, middle-of-the-road, left, right, up, down — is going to get its two bits in and we are going to wind up with a Constitution that will be so far different from the one we have lived under for 200 years.”
Here are some more recent warnings: Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg wrote in the Miami-Herald newspaper on September 14, 1986, “There is no enforceable mechanism to prevent a convention from reporting out wholesale changes to our Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
Former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger also agreed that a Convention was high risk with low reward, stating in a 1988 letter to Phyllis Schlafly, “The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda.”
The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia summed it up best in 2014 during an interview on the Kalb Report, where he said:
“I certainly would not want a Constitutional Convention! I mean, Woah! Who knows what would come out of that!”
So, who thinks this is a good idea??
Action Steps
Click here to ask your State Rep and State Senator to oppose any and all resolutions calling for a ‘convention of states’. Our US Constitution is too precious to place it in such jeopardy!
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