Greenley: Constitution Threatened by New Constitutional Convention

Constitution Threatened by New Constitutional Convention Initiative
Written by Larry Greenley
Friday, 29 May 2009 14:24
A new constitutional convention (Con-Con) initiative, "the Bill of Federalism Project," has been announced on a new website, http://www.federalismamendment.com, which was established by Michael Patrick Leahy on behalf of Professor Randy Barnett's Bill of Federalism proposal. Although the website has apparently been active for a couple weeks already, I just came across it today. This new website provides further evidence for the troubling trend I reported on in my earlier blog, "Constitutional Convention Backers Want to Hijack the Tea Party Movement."

As I explained in "A Con-Con Call to Action for Constitutionalists Across the USA," the high water mark of the balanced budget Con-Con movement occurred in 1983 when Missouri became the 32nd (out of the necessary 34) state to petition Congress to call a constitutional convention. Since that time members and allies of the John Birch Society have been successful in convincing state legislators to refrain from issuing any more Con-Con calls. Furthermore, these members and allies have helped convince state legislators in eleven states to rescind all of their previous constitutional convention calls with Oklahoma becoming the eleventh state earlier this month.

For those of you who have not followed the Con-Con battles of the past three decades, the basic problem with Congress calling a constitutional convention at the request of 34 or more states in accordance with Article V of the Constitution is that leading constitutional scholars and judges have pointed out that the agenda of such a constitutional convention could not be specified by the state legislatures who would have started the whole process in motion in the first place. In brief, a constitutional convention could become a "runaway" convention similar to our original Constitution Convention in 1787 and come up with a radically new constitution, not just a few specific amendments. Even Article V's additional requirement that three fourths of the states must ratify any amendments emanating from a constitutional convention is not sufficient safeguard against a runaway convention given the biased media and political elites that would be involved in the whole process...

...We've already had a couple of reports of JBS members who have been asked to become part of this new Con-Con initiative. Even though this new initiative, based on Professor Randy Barnett's Bill of Federalism proposal, is only in the beginning stages, it has the benefit of support by a founding leader of the Tea Party movement, Michael Patrick Leahy, and the frequent appearances of Prof. Barnett and Judge Andrew Napolitano on the Glenn Beck TV Show speaking favorably of a constitutional convention. Thus, there's the possibility that a million or so Tea Party participants and over 600,000 Glenn Beck 9-12 Project members could be influenced to lobby state legislators on behalf of a Con-Con.

If you are concerned about this new Con-Con threat to the Constitution, you need to inform the organizers of Tea Parties and the 9-12 Project in your area. You also need to be contacting your state legislators and providing the solid reasons against calling for a constitutional convention.

Our best educational tool for preventing a constitutional convention remains our video, "Beware of Article V":

http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/4941

See website for more infor http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/4941

Also see Greenley's

Dangers of a Constitutional Convention | Print | E-mail
Written by Larry Greenley
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 06:00

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/constitution/1241