ARTICLE V, OUR LAST LINE OF DEFENSE AGAINST TYRANNY

 

Consider the wisdom and forethought of America’s founders. These men had just fought for and won their independence from England, written the single most important document securing self governance and set down humbly, the process for perfecting their work. Men with unbridled power in their hands chose not to impose their will on future generations but rather to recognize that there were inevitable imperfections not yet knowable in their Constitution. The fifth article of the Constitution sets down two processes for amending the Constitution once experience demonstrates an imperfection. If the Constitution proves too limiting in the power and authority granted to the Federal Government, the Congress through a vote of two thirds majority of both houses can propose amendments to the Constitution for consideration by the states. If the Constitution proves, through experience, to grant too much authority to the Federal Government or that the Federal Government gathers too much power unto itself, ARTICLE V gives the states an amendment process independent of the Federal Government.

Samuel Jones explained the plan to the New York legislature: “The reason why there are two modes of obtaining amendments prescribed by the constitution I suppose would be this-it could not be known to the framers of the constitution, whether there was too much power given by it or too little; they therefore prescribed a mode by which Congress might procure more, if in the operation of the government it was found necessary; and they prescribed for the states a mode of restraining the powers of the government, if upon trial it should be found that they had given too much. 

It is of paramount importance to this discussion to take note of one fact: neither the federal Congress nor an article V convention of the states has the authority to change the U.S. Constitution! Either mode of proposing amendments require ratification by ¾ of the states before any amendment becomes law.

Alarmists have frequently raised the concern that an article V convention, once initiated, could open a Pandora’s box, whereby we could lose all of our constitutional protections. The framers dealt with the possibility that some future convention could undo the safe guards built into the constitution. During the proceedings of the original constitutional convention the delegates limited the article V convention to one that would merely propose amendments. A delegate named Elbridge Gerry proposed language replacing the plenipotentiary convention language with the language authorizing only a convention for the purpose of proposing and not enacting amendments. State legislatures have the right to petition the federal Congress to call an article V convention without first being subject to veto by their states governor. It is also true that the state legislatures have the right to restrict the subject matter that the convention may address. The federal Congress is prohibited from interfering in the article V process just as is the President. The framers recognized that the Congress and President could not be relied upon to limit their own authority even if experience proved it was necessary.

The definitive work outlining the process, legal authority and limitations of an article V convention was written by Robert G. Natelson, a senior fellow of the Independence Institute, in three articles published by the institute in December 2010, July 2011 and May 2012.

Every federal legislator and the President take an oath to faithfully uphold the Constitution. The limitations placed on the Federal Governments authority and power over citizens and states is strictly defined by the Constitution. Agents of the federal government who violate their oaths are criminals and must be treated as such. The Federal courts have been loaded with judges sympathetic to congressional and presidential overreach to such an extent that the framers built in safe guards to our liberties are mostly impotent now in protecting us. The “commerce clause” and the “general welfare clause” have been used to subjugate both states and citizens alike to the tyranny of our federal government.

49 of the 50 states have petitioned the U.S. Congress to call for an article V convention and the congress has not done their sworn duty and called for one.