2018: David Horowitz: Conservatives Need to Amend the Constitution Now

Patheos ^ | February 1st 2018 | David Horowitz

[Jacquerie]

Your opinion of the states’ collective accomplishments is irrelevant to their authority under Article V.

[Cboldt]

The link you sent does not work.

Meanwhile, the CCP constitution has as much religious freedom as the US constitution.

http://en.people.cn/constitution/constitution.html

Article 2. All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people.

Article 5 .... No law or administrative or local rules and regulations shall contravene the constitution

Article 37. The freedom of person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable.

[Jacquerie]

Try the link again. It just worked as it did before.

But, here is the url: http://articlevblog.com/2016/03/in-praise-of-the-soviet-constitution/

[semimojo]

Read further in the article.

I was responding to his argument that the applications could limit the topics. I don't think they can with any effect.

He makes a further point that individual states could pass laws to punish a delegate who voted for an unauthorized proposal, but that's speculation and it's very unlikely many states would do it.

More to the point, the topics that are authorized by the applications are so broad you could figure a way introduce almost any issue under their umbrella.

[SuzyQue]

Why not?

[SaxxonWoods]

Here are 18 that don’t look likely to ratify anything worth ratifying. It only takes 13.

NY, MA, MN, NJ, CA, VT, MI, IL, WA, OR, WI, NM, ME, HA, NH, MD, CT, DE.

[Jacquerie]

At the link: . . . “the commissioners to the convention act as agents of the state legislatures who appoint and commission them. Any actions outside the scope of that authority would be void as a matter of common law agency principles, as well as any state laws adopted to specifically address the issue.”

IOW, the states won’t send schlubs off the streets with plenary power, nor will they send “representatives.” The relationship between the delegates and their state legislature is that of attorney to a client.

[gspurlock]

The Article V Convention is the only means of the will of the People overriding the will of Congress. That is what it was designed for. If we are too timid to use it, we deserve what we get.

[Hostage]

Scare tactics include “Runaway Convention” which is impossible because if it were possible, the Left would have done it themselves. If the Left could take over an Article V Amendment effort, they’d be pushing it nonstop.

What conservatives must understand is that states with small populations are equal to states with large populations under an Article V process. Wyoming is equal to California, West Virginia is equal to New York. This why the United States was founded as a Constitutional Republic.

So Conservatives have the power potential via Article V NOW, they just need to unify and figure out what they need to do. One thing they could do for example would be to pass an Amendment for 34 States to impeach and remove a President after a voter referendum on recall. Another example could be to ban the use of digital election systems unless certified by a group of citizens selected at random for an election jury in conjunction with other factors.

[Jacquerie]

Given the rats’ clear intention to destroy the middle-class and establish an Orwellian hell on its ruins, opposition to using our Framers’ gift of Article V is nonsensical.

History will not look well on a people who abandoned themselves and their posterity to misery.

Have you read Mark Levin’s “Liberty Amendments?”

[Hostage]

10 years ago the number of such states was less than 11. What changed?

Electronic voting systems.

[Jacquerie]

The states are anathema to the Left. Since 1913 they sought and eventually achieved their power through corruption of federal institutions rather than dead with individual states.

Yeah, one state one vote. Wyoming = Californicate. Heh, heh.

There is so much rot, I believe an annual COS that convenes a week or so after the Scotus delivers its latest nonsense every June could do wonders.

[Lurkinanloomin]

No one will uphold the Constitution as written, so amending something that isn’t being paid any attention to is kind of pointless.

[Publius]

Here is the usual pedantic boilerplate that I post to these threads for those who don't understand the details of Article V. I've had this post vetted and corrected by a retired professor of constitutional law.

***

THE ARTICLE V AMENDATORY PROCESS

The amendatory process under Article V consists of three steps:

1. Proposal;
2. Direction;
3. Ratification.

Proposal:

There are two ways to propose an amendment to the Constitution.

• The Congressional method requires the House and Senate to pass an amendment by a two thirds majority of each house.
• The amendments convention method requires the legislatures of two thirds of the states to pass resolutions directing Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments. These resolutions are called applications. Once the two thirds threshold is reached, Congress is required to set a time and place for the convention.

Article V gives Congress and an amendments convention exactly the same power to propose amendments, except that a convention is limited to proposing amendments specified in the application and there is no such limit on Congress.

Direction:

Once Congress, or an amendments convention, proposes amendments, Congress must decide whether the states will ratify by the:

• State legislature method, or the
• State ratifying convention method.

The state ratifying convention method has only been used once: to ratify the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition. A similar procedure was used to ratify the Constitution itself.

Ratification:

Depending upon which ratification method is chosen by Congress, either the state legislatures vote up-or-down on the proposed amendment, or the voters elect a state ratifying convention to vote up-or-down. If three fourths of the states vote to ratify, the amendment becomes part of the Constitution.

Forbidden Subjects:

Article V contains two explicitly forbidden subjects and two implicitly forbidden subjects.

Explicitly forbidden:

1. No amendment may be added to the Constitution concerning the slave trade or direct taxes until 1808. We’re well past that deadline.
2. No amendment may be added to the Constitution to change the principle of equal representation in the Senate unless every state deprived of that right approves. If California wants five senators, every state must have five senators. To permit violation of this principle, every state would have to ratify the amendment, not just three fourths.

Implicitly forbidden:

1. The Constitution of 1787 may not be abrogated and replaced with a new document. Article V only authorizes “a convention for proposing amendments to this Constitution;” so the Constitution of 1787 is locked in place.
2. A convention for proposing amendments is limited to the topics authorized by state applications.

Reference works:

Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of the States: A Handbook for State Lawmakers

***

This is the current lineup of two applications that might make it to the finish line.

15: AL, AK, AR, AZ, FL, GA, IN, LA, MO, MS, ND, OK, TN, TX, UT.

For a Convention of the States dedicated to Georgia’s application language, which would re-balance citizens’ rights versus federal power and state power, the count is 15 down, 19 to go.

For a Convention of the States dedicated to a balanced budget amendment only, the count is 30 down, 4 to go.

[qaz123]

Two things would change the trajectory of this country in no time.

Repeal the 17h Amendment

End the fallacy of Birthright Citizenship and make it retroactive to October 3, 1993.

[Kevmo]

Better yet, let's secede. From my home page

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Secession

It's time for us to jettison those who reject our national values because there's no changing them. Time to secede.

We should extend the invitation to secede on a county by county basis.

While we're at it, since we'd be forming a new country, we should extend the invitation to counties in Canada and Mexico as well.

Note that this option is becoming increasingly popular.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4000029/posts

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[Jacquerie]

By your calculation a COS can do no harm.

[Jacquerie]

The 17A pulled the keystone from our Framers’ governing form.

Progressives pushed for direct senatorial elections since the 1870s. The intent was that the interests of popularly elected Senate would align with the House of Reps.

The progs were right. Having transformed the US overnight from a federal republic to a democratic republic, it is a wonder that we have lasted so long in our corrupted condition.

All good things are possible upon repeal of the 17th.

[Publius]

Progressives pushed for direct senatorial elections since the 1870s.

And Andrew Jackson pushed for it in his first State of the Union letter in 1829. In that letter he also pushed for abolition of the Electoral College.

[qaz123]

Said it better than I could have. Nice.