by Kathy Love, Hamilton
Two questions should be asked on anything that is brought before the legislature. Is it Constitutional and should we be doing it now? A COS is indeed Constitutional, but we should not be doing it now in the present political climate.
If you read the actual text of Article V, a lot of the assumptions about what will happen and the procedures are not documented. According to Article V, the states can make an application for a COS and then ratify amendments that come out of one. Congress, under its authority under the Supremacy Clause, controls the rest. It is one of their enumerated powers and thus they can make rules and regulate it. Congress has the authority to make any rules and set the time and place. Congress can also choose delegates and how many delegates. Will the larger states get more delegates? You will notice that there is nothing in Article V that says the states choose the delegates. That is under Congress’ authority under the Supremacy Clause. In fact, they know that it is in their control because in 1973 the Senate passed S.1272 which was a “Federal Constitutional Convention Procedures Act”. It never made it to the House. If they could do that in 1973 then they can do it now. Can you just imagine the rules and procedures we would get from our present Congress? In this age of special interest groups do you really trust that process? Under Article V, the states can ratify amendments by two ways: State Legislature and State Convention. Guess who gets to choose the method? Congress! When our founding Fathers wrote Article V, I’m sure they had no idea how corrupt the Government would become. Article V was not designed to correct a corrupt government. The corruption is not in the Constitution. The corruption is because we haven’t contained them in their boundaries of enumerated powers within the Constitution. Now those of you calling for a COS want to put the same corrupt government in charge of calling a COS and defining the rules and procedures of one. How could that possibly go wrong?
COS admits that they have “study groups” to come up with “clarification” clauses such as to “define” the 2nd Amendment as well as other amendments. What else are they going to try and “define”? If they have no intention of changing anything other than what they say they will, why have the study groups? While term limits sound really great on the surface, it will actually create a perpetual lame duck Congress. If they aren’t worried about re-election then they have NOTHING to hold them accountable. That would be six years of total unaccountability for a U.S. Senator! Not to mention the fact that you would get rid of the really good ones in the same process!
Do you trust the Federal Government to do the right thing? Do you trust 49 other states to do the right thing? That’s a lot of faith to “hope” that our most sacred of documents won’t be shredded. Do you really have that much trust? Are you willing to take that chance that the process will be honest and fair in the current political climate? The Constitution is not the problem. The problem is they don’t follow it. The solution is to find a way to make them follow the Constitution we have now. Maybe we should start with judicial reform. If we can’t do that then how are we to make them follow new amendments or a new constitution? It is not worth the risk!
Bob Williams says
Thank-you Kathy Love for your LTE to the Bitterroot Star about Convention of States(COS)!
You pointed out need to know information. For instance, if we now had a COS, to propose ammendments to the US Constitution, it’s the current Congress that would decide how many delegates would to be seated from each state.
The 118th. Congress has an approval rating of around 20%. If the current Congress does not well represent us, how can we trust it to constitute a COS that would well represent us?
The online Comment attacking Kathy Love’s printed LTE, would be real short. If it had no false accusations, no invective, and no contrived gotcha questions.
Mike Mercer says
A “Convention of States”, not to be confused with a “convention of states”, only has the authority to propose amendments, by itself, it cannot change the Constitution and States choose their own representatives; I know, very confusing.
Helen Sabin says
Kahy – do you advise your gun students to wait until a robber, rapist or attacked is on them before they react to the threat on their lives? Do you teach them about “reactionary gap?” When would be a good time to react to the threat posed by our own government Kathy?
You ask, is now the time to have a Convention of States ?YES KATHY IT IS.
How much longer should Americans wait to react to the threats posed by our own government? By the spending of Biden and Congress that has the USA in over one hundred TRILLION dollars.
Do we wait for the country to implode? Right now our payments on the national debt are more than the military budget. Should we wait for the country to fail and China and Japan come into take our assets to pay our debt before doing anything? It seems you do.
Come on Kathy – other than your abysmal knowledge of the Constitution, your convoluted op-ed that makes no sense, your lack of historical knowledge and resources, as well as article V, the FACT that you do NOT question what you learn from the John Birchers -is telling about you. You choose to remain ignorant.
Corvallis schools will be offering an adult ed class in “civics.” Go take it. IN the meantime try reading these books that will make you an “expert” on the Constitution: After all, Robert Brown of the John Birchers who claims to be an expert because he reads, says you can be one so go for it. Here are some good books written by real historical experts: Natelson and The Law of Article V. Barton and Original Intent, Farris and Constitutional Literacy and Constitutional Law for adults. Then go view on YouTube, All Things@ articleV, and really learn what you need to know before posting the mishmash of nonsense you have in this op ed.
YES NOW is the time and we must act. OR you will see this country fail while you stand there and wring your hands and quake in fear. I am glad that Washington did not wait to cross the Delaware or ask, is now the time? I am glad that the founding fathers and their families did not quake in fear like you do to sign the Constitution.
Finally I ask, what is YOUR solution Kathy? You write that the COS is not the solution and yet don’t post a solution yourself. So step up Kathy and write what YOU would do to solve the problem of our run away government. I can’t wait for a good laugh.