Causes.com
| 8.18.22
Conservatives Focus on 2022 Elections in Push to Amend The Constitution
Do you support your state joining the call for a convention of states?
What’s the story
- A conservative movement to call a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution is gaining momentum, with organizations focusing on the 2022 primaries to campaign for Republican lawmakers that will support their plan.
- The Convention of States Action (COS) has worked for years to get state legislatures to pass their resolution for a constitutional convention — a never before accomplished method to amend the U.S. Constitution outlined in Article V. If at least 34 states, two-thirds, can agree to call a convention, just 38 are needed to ratify proposed amendments.
- Currently, 19 states have passed COS’ resolution, which states a goal to “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress.”
The big picture
- Not all Republicans support the venture, even candidates COS has attempted to help. In South Dakota, the organization spent more than $200,000 on four state Senate seat primaries this year. One campaign focused on distributing negative ads against five-term Republican lawmaker Mary Duvall. Her challenger and the eventual winner, Jim Mehlhaff, said he didn’t appreciate COS’ negative ads even if they may have helped him. PBS reported:
“Mehlhaff was baffled at the notion that a possible constitutional convention factored so heavily in his race: ‘Convention of states is not my issue at all,’ he said.”
- Supporters of COS believe a convention is the best method to amend the Constitution, as it circumvents the typical method whereby Congress must approve proposed amendments by a two-thirds vote. They argue that because a proposed amendment would require 75% of states to approve it, the only changes that would be approved would be measures with broad support.
- Other groups are also pushing for a convention of states, such as the liberal group Wolf-PAC, which seeks to add a 28th amendment to the Constitution to reform campaign finance laws.
What’s next
- Rob Natelson, conservative legal scholar and former adviser to COS, told Insider that he predicts a 50% chance for a convention to happen within the next five years. He stated:
"It's going to depend a little bit on the results of the 2022 midterms...The makeup of state legislatures will help you determine how much progress they make."
- Republicans currently hold majorities in 31 state legislatures, and are hopeful to flip a number of Democrat-controlled chambers in the 2022 midterms.
- There has never been a constitutional convention since the original one that drafted the Constitution in 1787. All other amendments to the Constitution have been initiated by Congress.
What do you think?
Do you support your state joining the call for a convention of states?
-Casey Dawson
(Photo Credit: Jonathan Thorne / Flickr)
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The trump has spawned a new generation of trumps with the same philosophy, thuggish Nasricistic Sociaopathic tendencies, inability or lack of interest in accomplishing anything other than disrupting democratic institutions and processes, and speaking in a bizarre and often incomprehensible combination of marketing buzzwords and bumper slogan blurbs.
This is a huge danger to the future of our country and we will not even begin to stop all of the neo-trumps until The trump is clearly convicted for his wrongdoings and a clear example is set by the terms of his punishments.
Will there be unrest and turmoil from the MAGA-mob? Yes there will be, and that needs to be squelched rapidly with serious penalties for convictions as well.
None of this would have been necessary if the Republican Cartel would have put their country's interests ahead of their political ambitions and reigned the trump in by congressional action and/or accountability with impeachment convictions. This is clearly the example the Republican Cartel putting their political interests ahead of our country's interests and reflective of transactional thinking to 'win the deal' instead of winning the future with pro-active longer term thinking that could have protected even their own party’s interests.
The trump did not morph into the presidential monster that he became overnight; he was fed, cultivated.coddled and repeatedly forgiven by the Republican Cartel, because it was political expedient to do so - honor and ethics be damned.
The Republican Cartel created the Frankentrump-thing that the trump became. They saw near term benefit in the trump rolling back environmental regulations, dismantling of government agencies and having presidential judiciary appointments delegated by the trump to the Federalist Society.
Now they are afraid of the FrankenTrump Monster that they created and are cowering in fear from it.
The Republican Cartel needs to be politically held to account for their transgressions becuase it was their lust for power, greed and stupidity that created, nourished and grew the Frankentrump monster and the many new trump's that it has spawned. The quiet, supposedly principled Republicans afraid to speak up are just guilty as well; their silence is compliance.
There needs to be criminal accountability for those Republican Cartel members that have directly aided and abetted the trump’s seemingly illegal acts. There needs to be political accountability and consequences for the rest, as well.
Thomas Jefferson recommended frequent constitutional change to keep constitutions up-to-date but probably never imagined the gridlock of today's legislators.
Based on past performance I doubt much will happen unless PACs & special interests have enough politicians in their pocket to force it, but why would they when they've invested so much into the existing office holders?
The Constitution was designed to be changed as specified in Article V of the Constitution which provides 2 ways to amend it, and has been amended 27 times the most recent in 1992. Amendments can be proposed by either
1) Congressional through joint resolution passed by a 2/3rds vote. Congress has submitted 33 amendment proposals to the states, 27 of which were ratified.
2) Congressional Convention in response to applications from 2/3rds of state legislature
3) Amendments proposed by Congress or convention become valid only when ratified by the legislatures of, or conventions in 3/4th of the states (i.e., 38 of 50 states).
Since 2010 various groups have pursued limiting the authority of the federal government, balanced federal budget, campaign finance reform, congressional term limits or federal debt which can be viewed in the volume of legislation introduced in state legislatures by year
2011—78 bills or resolutions
2012—40 bills or resolutions
2013—62 bills or resolutions
2014—66 bills or resolutions
2015—65 bills or resolutions
2016—89 bills or resolutions
2017—120 bills or resolutions
How successful will it be? Just looking at recent causes topics, and variations among states shows a lack of alignment
(1) Colorado River Basin water use agreements for just 7 states
(2) 21 states have no sales tax in period products + 4 no tax states is 25 states
(3) 33 states have no food tax
(4) abortion pill access State Laws limit use:
-17 states require the clinic to meet structural standards comparable to ambulatory surgical centers, such as maintaining standard operating rooms, surgical examination tables, and more.
-7 states require clinicians who provide abortion care have hospital admitting privileges or an alternative arrangement in place
-32 states permit only licensed physicians (no pharmacists, PA, RN,etc)
-7 states (AR, ID, KY, NE, OK, SD, UT) require patients to be counselled that medication abortion may be reversed if given a high dose of progesterone after taking mifepristone–despite a lack of scientific evidence to support this claim.
-4 states (AZ, ND, KS) have passed similar laws but the courts are blocking it
-14 states block use of Medicaid money for exceptions (incest, rape, endangerment of mothers life) to the Hyde Amendment (1977) that limits use of Federal money
-11 states limit private insurance reimbursement as states regulate fully insured private insurance, including plans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces.
-33 states had no ACA Marketplace plans that offered abortion coverage, with 26 states categorically banning it as of 2020
-no alignment at the state level of surgical & medical abortion (allowable, gestational limits, annual/lifetime caps)
-6 states require all plans to cover it (CA, IL, ME, NY, OR, WA)
(5) 28 states under heat advisories but no climate emergency declared
(6) 27 states have pre-K & after school care
(7) 988 mental health hotline response funded in 4 states, 21 states using Medicaid-Medicare grants, 21 states enacted legislation
(8) 8 states banned single use plastic bags
(9) 6 states suspended gas tax
(10) 19 states have red flag laws
(11) 30 states have Capitol punishment
https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/amending-the-u-s-constitution.aspx
https://constitutionus.com/constitution/amendments/constitutional-amendments/
https://www.causes.com/comments/10842
https://www.causes.com/comments/14172
https://www.causes.com/comments/17718
https://www.causes.com/comments/18229
https://www.causes.com/comments/22784
https://www.causes.com/comments/27642
https://www.causes.com/comments/28891
https://www.causes.com/comments/29091
https://www.causes.com/comments/34276
https://www.causes.com/comments/34809
https://www.causes.com/comments/34709
I don't trust anything the fucking Republicans propose!!!!! I agree that term limits need to be imposed on the Supreme Court Justices and all members of Congress and that campaign finance needs to be instituted (undo the Citizen's United shit that the SC ushered in), but given that the Republican party is trying to end democracy I don't trust anyting that they try to do.
At this point in time, something has to be done about our run away government. There is no consensus. The Democrats want everything without work the normal dive and take process setup my our forefathers. This country was not setup to be ruled my one party. Democrats don't seem to care about changing our Consitution, they just want to Ignore the sections they don't like. The Democrat Party is being controlled by left- wing socialists.
So much has changed since the Constitution was written & implemented, that would t warrants some changes, like more inclusive language (instead of the white, patriarchal language/bias of the day). However, I oppose this because of who is spearheading this operation.
Our country should NOT be led by a minority of right-winged, christo-fascist republicans. That's where all this is going.
Nope! No! Uh, uh!!!
Be careful what you wish for. While things like a balanced budget amendment, on its face, appear to be a worthwhile goal, it creates a huge problem in the long run. To compare the federal budget to a family budget is a false analogy. If Social Security is not allowed to use monies it has accummulated in previous years, benefits will be substantially cut much sooner than expected. The same will hold true for Medicare. if this were the case for a family budget, families would not be able to borrow to buy homes or cars or other items because the cost of those items would exceed, in most instances except for the very wealthy, the incomes of most Americans in a given year. Savings toward retirement would also not be permitted if a model of what the federal budget was to look llike was used as no funds could be carried over to the next year and would need to be expended in the fiscal year in which they were earned.
If a convention of the states were to be called, there are no guarantees that the original proposed reasons for the convention would be adhered to. The convention would be free to set it own rules and could theoretically write an entirely new Constitution as was done in 1787 when the constitutional convention was called to modify the Articles of Confederation. That convention was charged with modifying the Articles to promote trade among the states. The result was a whole new governing document. There also are no outside agencies, including the courts, that have any jurisdiction to intervene in any decisions made by such a convention.
Some views of constitutional scholars
“I certainly would not want a constitutional convention. Whoa! Who knows what would come out of it?”a
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
“[T]here is no way to effectively limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda. Congress might try to limit the Convention to one amendment or one issue, but there is no way to assure that the Convention would obey. After a Convention is convened, it will be too late to stop the Convention if we don’t like its agenda.”b
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger
“There is no enforceable mechanism to prevent a convention from reporting out wholesale changes to our Constitution and Bill of Rights.”c
Former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg
“First of all, we have developed orderly procedures over the past couple of centuries for resolving [some of the many] ambiguities [in the Constitution], but no comparable procedures for resolving [questions surrounding a convention]. Second, difficult interpretive questions about the Bill of Rights or the scope of the taxing power or the commerce power tend to arise one at a time, while questions surrounding the convention process would more or less need to be resolved all at once. And third, the stakes in this case in this instance are vastly greater, because what you’re doing is putting the whole Constitution up for grabs.”d
Professor Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School
“[S]tate legislators do not have the right to dictate the terms of constitutional debate. On the contrary, they may be eliminated entirely if Congress decides that state conventions would be more appropriate vehicles for ratification. The states have the last say on amendments, but the Constitution permits them to consider only those proposals that emerge from a national institution free to consider all possible responses to an alleged constitutional deficiency. . . Nobody thinks we are now in the midst of constitutional crisis. Why, then, should we put the work of the first convention in jeopardy?”e
Professor Bruce Ackerman, Yale Law School
How would states choose their delegations? Would those delegations be representative of all views within the states or only the highly partisan? What representation would there be of special interests, especially the wealthy and major corporate interests vs. the poor, vulnerable, POC, disabled, and others that the wealthy and powerful are unwilling to represent, or even acknowledge exist?
When our current Constitution was written the delegates were focused on a general common goal and vision. That is not the case in now in a nation that is divided between democracy vs. authoritarianism. The opportunity to bypass Congress and write major policy changes into the Constitution — where they would be extremely difficult to remove — would likely tempt powerful, well-funded interest groups to influence the process and press for changes beyond those initially envisioned. After all, there are no federal or state limits on spending to influence delegates to a constitutional convention. No one can predict with confidence what would happen, for example, if Wall Street concerns sought to ban the taxation of capital income or prohibit market regulations designed to prevent another financial crisis, or if energy companies sought to ban a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system.
Do we really want to unleash the unknown forces and outcomes of a convention that could completely upset our democratic republic and reconstitute it into something far less functional, and far more oppressive than anyone anticipates or expects. The United States was formed as a republic, as a liberal democratic republic. Do we really want to risk fully dismanteling that?
I would support efforts to amend the Constitution in a way that succeeds, since it's nearly impossible under the current format. We do need campaign finance and elections reform, but not the kind of reform some of these conservatives likely support. Maybe if there were an actual fair, representative group of leaders that were not members of Congress (for decades), we can get real reform.
I'm open to it, but I don't know how the representatives to this convention would be chosen and what their actual agenda would be. That makes me nervous.
After having been away from this site for a month it was a bit of a challenge to find anything of substance to dive into. Maybe Causes has had some extended time off as well.
At any rate, the naysayers herein apparently have no interest in a) fiscal responsibility, b) limitations on federal authoritity (aka individual freedom), c) term limits, and d) campaign finance reform. This conversation has a great deal of merit if given honest consideration. The 535, many of them now crowned elitists, care very little for their constituents. Most are strictly self-serving, not public servants.
Sadly, no, more like pathetically, while leftist have been waiting for the next government handout or instruction from the elitists on what to do next, they don't even recognize that what they've become are dependents of their elected masters. The 535 guardians of 330 million. You've been boldly played by a couple dozen liberal progressive elites that have no hesitation or moral compass to deter their lies.
Just remember. Seventy-three million American's (73,000,000) did not vote for Harris-Biden. The pendulum swings.
Meanwhile, at the southern border...
Republicans are tuned to slowly but surely destroy America as a leading work in progress democracy as it no longer suits them as the only way they can gain positions of power is to lie cheat steal obfuscate denigrate etc and this has been amply demonstrated over the last two election cycles. Practically 100% of election crimes known thus far were committed by those identifying as republicans!
Unless the dems toughen up and speak up on a daily platform not through investigative committees this dumbed down population is not going to understand! As you can see constant noise gets through especially in middle America! He who shouts the most will be heard out on the 'range'!
on the world stage there is ONLY one language that will work and that is what impacts asia's bread & butter. Europe and the US must restrict access to everything especially market & technology or lose the game. China has to be checked collectively by EU and US - break ranks and you are history!
lets see how much the chinese and indians can trade with each other and russia / saudi? They all want to band together to screw their real paying customers! How dumb can you be?
This belt has to tighten immediately not even over 6 months! Nip it in the bud.
Saudi bedouins did not know what oil was until the US showed them! The US shielded them from Saddam & Iran - big mistake!
China was entirely empowered by the US initiating manufacturing transfers
Big corps if not reigned in will also kill everyday america with wanton greed!
Many (including himself) think Elon Musk is a genius!? Anyone bent on replacing janitorial staff with robots is downright dumb and of course soulless
These 'oligarchs' profess to 'give' away all their wealth! Ask them why did they usurp this wealth in the first place by sucking their employees blood? This is simply modern day slavery. They want you to work 100 hours not attend to your family and other essential life's interests so they can get rich and give some to some cause to feed their ego and structure tax shelters?
I can write a whole book but you get the drift!
Not at this time. Too much malfeasance too root out first. "Full extent of the law", 14th, section 3 for trump and ilk.
Do you really feel like anyone currently serving our government has the finest of minds like those original authors of that document? I don't! Leave it alone. It is perfect!
Republicans are white supremacy just like there leader Trump and Ye they love them both.
It is time for a convention of states to correct the voting laws and the laws concerning marriage in our constitution. The founding fathers believed that marriage was between a man and a woman physiologically so.
Here I am trying to figure out what these devious Republicans are up too. It sure isn't to have term limits that's for damn sure. FIRST FIND OUT WHAT THEY WANT. I BELIEVE STRONGLY FEDERALIST ARE INVOLVED. SO I DONT TRUST THEM AT ALL I THINK THEY WOULD DO AWAY SOMEHOW WITH DEMOCRACY. FEDERALISTS WANT AUTHORITARIAN RULE RIGHT I START WITH THAT DONT BELIEVE A WORD OF GOP THEY ARE UNDERHANDED THATS FOR SURE REMEMBER THEY LOVE THE OLD WAY WHITE RULES BLACK, BROWN AND WOMEN ARE 2nd class. It's been awhile but that's what I remember in a nutshell please correct me if Iam wrong thanks. God save AMERICA
Great idea! Please make it happen please.
If the republicans are behind it, it is ALWAYS A BAD IDEA. Corrupt SOBs. Just look at the kast two years alone. Lies, "alternative facts", "exagerated hyperbole". Curruped voting by the trump, fake electors. All they want to do is destroy the constitution by using it. Republicans are the pestilence on the wheat fields of democracy. We the people need to eradicate this pestilence this November.
A-hole Thomas temporarily stopped the subpoena for Lindsey piece-of-crap!Graham! He should have recused himself, since his wife was responsible for the bull crap lies that the election was stolen. HE MUST BE IMPEACHED IMMEDIATELY! He cannot be trusted to uphold the Constitution!
No way, not now, not ever should a Constitutional Convention be called to allow MAGA insurrectionists, 2020 election deniers, neo-Nazi militias, and other seditionists to destroy the right of the American people to vote and election our U.S. President or to overturn an election if their favored candidate losses an election.
Not just bad. Nuts.
Our government MUST GET CONTROL over "the extreme right media." You must not confuse FREEDOM OF SPEECH with freedom TO LIE & misrepresent verifiable facts to our citizens! They are voting CRAZINESS into our political system because the right wing has devolved into a misinformation machine! Thai MUST STOP or America's in SERIOUS TROUBLE!!! To protect & defend America, you must protect & defend TRUTH
25 years ago Politicians planted drug dealers in every American community, Who are the 30 year career politicians and tell them to turn off their drug pipelines, They killed enough Americans.
I feet that not only should we support our own and come together as an Amazon team. I have my likes and dislikes for both political parties but in general the Democratic party trys to focus on immediate issues? Our children being hungery and suffering in our own schools, fast aid
Dont miss understand, they have to be rich or well funded as any politician to afford to run for an office. But when it comes to the Democratic policies they look out for the blue color worker, programs for our Veterans, of whom many suffer.
With the student loans and the COLA for seniors. They try to take care of our own; from the people, country, or our children s education to housing and jobs.
I believe they are trying. Politics already get in the way.
It has become apparent that the GOP motivation is the enactment of policies that further their political power rather than the democratic ideals upon which our Constitution is based. Therefore, such efforts to revise the election process via Constitutional conventions are not supportable!
You know what they want to do is remove women's right to vote and allow voting only for white, land owning men.
They want to go back to the 1800s, make no mistake about that.
Everything they say and so shows this intent.
This is the way the Constitution says things SHOULD be done. NOT by "exceutive orders", so let's do it the right way.
Regarding the last presidential results.
One of my representatives on the federal level was not holding office at the time of the last election, another one I feel pretty good about, except her fondness for corporations and environment destroying industry. That would leave representative Sullivan who I am mostly curious about, wether he believes president Biden actually won the election. What do you say representative Sullivan?
This is to my representatives. 2 of which I am not asking the question, are you one of the hundred plus congressmen who signed on to destroy democracy in our country by denying the results of our last presidential election?
We can't allow this I don't like idea of Tom McClintock in this country getting away with tearing our Country up because their butt hurt about something. I will not stand by quietly while Conservative right Wing nuts try to take over this Country because they like Vitor out of Turkey move to their damn Country. These people are sick Democrats must stop them