For a Convention of the States dedicated to Georgia’s application language, which would re-balance citizens’ rights and state powers versus federal power, the count is 19 down, 15 to go.
For a Convention of the States dedicated to a balanced budget amendment only, the count is 30 down, 4 to go.
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This is an old article that has been reposted.
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This is the usual boilerplate I append to these threads for those afraid of the Article V process.
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The amendatory process under Article V consists of three steps:
- Proposal;
- Direction;
- 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:
- No amendment may be added to the Constitution concerning the slave trade or direct taxes until 1808. We’re well past that deadline.
- 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:
- 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.
- A convention for proposing amendments is limited to the topics authorized by state applications.
Reference work:
Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of the States: A Handbook for State Lawmakers