Congress Has Illegally Ignored over 760 Requests For Convention of States

[rangerrebew]

Congress Has Illegally Ignored over 760 Requests For Convention of States


Posted On 17 Dec 2014

By : Instigator News Network
 

Kathryn Watson | Watchdog.org

Seven hundred and sixty-three.

No, that’s not how much the national debt is ticking upwards per second, or how much you’ll pay annually for premiums under Obamacare.

It’s the total number of applications that 49 states — every state except Hawaii — have sent petitioning the U.S. Congress to call for a controversial Article V convention of states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution and rein in the federal government.

The concept of a convention to bring power back to the states may not be widely known, but it’s an idea that’s slowly gaining steam as Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Congress and fear the federal government has grown too large and too powerful.

The Founding Fathers, recognizing that it wouldn’t be in Congress’ own interest to rein in their power, made a provision in the U.S. Constitution for Congress to be required to call a convention if two-thirds of the states — 34 now — demand one. Any constitutional amendments proposed at a convention of states still would have to be ratified by three-quarters of the states, or 38 states.

But longtime advocates for an Article V convention of states say Congress received more than enough applications decades ago.

Ignoring those applications, says Bill Walker, cofounder of the Friends of the Article V Convention, is a “massive constitutional violation.”

“The Congress knows all about this, and they know they’re supposed to call (a convention), and they’re doing everything they can to avoid it,” the Seattle-based former journalist told Watchdog.org.

When Walker began researching the subject in the 1990s out of curiosity, he said he figured Congress either had some legal justification for not calling a convention, or simply wasn’t aware. After all, there seemed to be plenty of applications.

He soon learned that wasn’t the case.

Starting in 2000, Walker filed his first of two lawsuits against the United States government, going so far as to claim Congress was in criminal violation of the Constitution for failing to call a convention.

The cases essentially established that the Constitution bears no time limit on applications to Congress, or restrictions that requests for convention be on the same topic.

That, however, hasn’t changed anything.

John De Herrera, a California author and activist affiliated with the Friends of the Article V Convention, said Congress needs to “stop playing dumb.”

“We’re just waiting for the Congress to wake up,” he said.

Right now, they’re at 763 applications for a convention, and counting.

“You have a massive scandal involving Congress, and no one’s paying attention to it,” Walker said.

“This makes Watergate look like child’s play,” Walker added. “… If they can disobey that, then why can’t they disobey the rest of the Constitution?”

Read more at http://instigatornews.com/congress-has-illegally-ignored-over-760-requests-for-convention-of-states/#FcKOCIbVYSRyU3h3.99

[jmyrlefuller]

Most of them were rescinded by the state governments who issued them.

There's only been one situation where an Article V convention even came close to happening. That was in the 1960s, after the Warren Court outlawed state senates in Reynolds v. Sims. Since this was during the Johnson administration and liberals controlled all branches of government, the Article V convention was the only way to correct the court ruling. 33 states passed convention requests requests, one short. Then the chief proponent of the idea (Senator Everett Dirksen) died, and everyone just gave up on the idea and started rescinding their resolutions.

So right now, the ACTIVE requests for an Article V convention sit at 5, not 763 as the author claims.

The five that have not yet been rescinded, according to Wikipedia (trust them at your peril):

• Alabama (2014; intended purpose: define marriage as between one man and one woman)
• California (2011; intended purpose: outlaw corporate spending on elections)
• Michigan (2014; intended purpose: balanced budget amendment)
• Ohio (2013; intended purpose: balanced budget amendment)
  
• Vermont (2011; no specific proposed amendment)

As many have noted, an Article V convention would not be bound to the proposals at all. But if there is to be a convention, we still need 29 more.

Correction: It appears that the balanced-budget ones have at least 20 other states with active petitions, not two, and three additional states have passed a Citizens for Self-Governance proposal that has no specific requests, while there is another proposed convention regarding corporate spending So we're actually quite a bit closer than I had anticipated, with 28 out of the 34 required states.