“Ignorance lies not in the things you don’t know, but in the things you know that ain’t so.” Will Rogers
As we careen from one partisan confrontation to another, it might surprise many people to learn that there are those among us who believe it is a good time to mess with our fundamental law, the U.S. Constitution. A well-funded, highly coordinated effort from parties on the right and left are working tirelessly to persuade states to pass resolutions asking Congress to call a convention under Article V of the Constitution.
In his quest to catch the Road Runner, Wiley Coyote would always order supplies from ACME Corporation, but they never performed as advertised. Either they didn’t work, or they blew up in his face – which brings us to the idea of a so‐called Article V convention. Would it, as we are being led to believe, really save the Republic or would it open Pandora’s Box?
To err on the side of caution, perhaps the question we should be asking is: if it is even possible to rig a federal election, would it be any harder to rig a constitutional convention? We could end up with a “cure” that actually kills the patient and that would be a major disaster.
The Constitution offers no guidelines or rules on how the convention would work or whether it could be limited as to the number of amendments under consideration. In addition, there is nothing in the Constitution that gives state legislatures any control over their delegates to the convention. Once selected, delegates become federal officials with authority derived from Article V, not the states. And SCOTUS has made it very clear that the process of amending the Constitution is a political question into which the courts would not intervene to settle any disputes.
And contrary to what many convention advocates contend, Congress’ role would be more than simply ministerial. Under Article V, Congress writes the actual convention call. According to Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona, “if you think that the corrupt insiders in D.C. are going to let a convention change and alter the Constitution to make it what people believe will be tighter and restrain the federal government, you don’t understand what’s happening in Congress…. It isn’t the Constitution that’s the problem, it is the people who ignore the Constitution that usurp power and abuse the constitutional power that they ostensibly have.”
Once a convention begins, it makes its own rules. Promises about procedures and outcomes are meaningless because they are unenforceable – there is no guaranteed outcome. Proponents will not be able to control who attends, what issues will be discussed or what amendments ultimately will be approved. Just image a conglomerate of characters from both political parties, surrounded by socialists, communists, Marxists, global warming scammers, gun controllers, police defunders, teacher unions, Fauci fans, open borders proponents, Electoral College critics, wokesters, social justice and cancel culture warriors, peaceniks, Critical Race Theorists, et cetera, with progressive insiders controlling credentials, rules, issues, committees and voting procedures.
Calling an Article V convention is reckless, especially at this divisive moment in our nation’s political history. Nothing the supporters of the Convention propose does anything even to mitigate the risks that a convention would bring. State legislatures should not delude themselves that the dangers of an Article V convention can somehow be contained.
Though the Constitution is imperfect, it still made possible the greatest experiment in liberty the world has ever witnessed. Opening it up to potentially radical change is not the answer. The real problem is that the Constitution is being systematically ignored, violated and misinterpreted and the Article V Convention could make matters even worse.
The remedy to the generations-long encroachment on the integrity of the Constitution is to throw out the bums who insist on destroying our form of government and replace them with those who respect the concept of limited government and cherish our liberties. David Limbaugh
Source: Why is the Right Betting the Constitution on an Article V Convention? by Elaine Donnelly, The Federalist; Congressman Biggs on Why an Article V Convention of States Would Be Dangerous by Christian Gomez, The New American; A ‘Convention of States’ is the last thing America needs right now by David A. Super, The Hill; An Article V Constitutional Convention? Wrong Idea, Wrong Time by Walter Olsen, CATO Institute
