Joel S. Hirschhorn -- World News Trust
To: Presidential Candidate John Edwards
Subject: Winning the presidency by defending OUR Constitution
Dear Mr. Edwards,
I am intrigued by your clear populist and progressive orientation, particularly your focus on addressing economic inequality that is harming working- and middle-class Americans. There is another issue that is ideal for you to champion. I beg you to open you heart and mind to something that likely has escaped your attention. In a nutshell: Congress has steadfastly ignored a clear provision in Article V of our Constitution that empowers the states to have Congress call for a convention of state delegates to consider proposals for constitutional amendments.
Article V is crystal clear. The only requirement is that two-thirds of state legislatures submit applications to Congress for a convention. This is the alternative route for the first step of the amendment process. Up until now, only Congress has formed proposals for amendments. Let me assure you that vastly more than two-thirds of state legislatures have at various times sought a convention. In fact, there have been 567 such applications from 50 states.
Judge Thomas Brennan, former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and Dean Emeritus and President of Thomas Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, has spoken out boldly in favor of Congress calling an Article V convention: “The right to demand an amendatory convention under Article V of the federal Constitution is the last prerogative of the several sovereign states of the American union. If dual sovereignty means anything in the United States any more, if there is any irreducible minimum beyond which the lawful authority and inherent power of the states cannot be diminished, it must lie in the clear mandate of Article V. By the plain words of Article V, the people of three-fourths of the states can amend the Constitution of the nation. Speaking either through their state legislatures or through state ratification conventions, the people of the fifty states, counted state by state, are the ultimate sovereign authority by which the federal Constitution is amended. But the right and the reserved power of the people of the states to pass upon constitutional amendments is hollow indeed without the prerogative of demanding an amendatory convention to discuss, refine, draft and propose amendments. … There is no danger of a runaway convention. That phrase, ‘runaway convention’, and all the accompanying horror stories about repealing the Bill of Rights are utterly without substance. They are myths, harmful to democracy, invented by those who are afraid to let the people exercise their historic and God-given right to self government.”
There is a widespread misperception that only applications seeking the same amendment can be counted. This is dead wrong. No such thing is said or implied in Article V. A little thought and it becomes clear that our Founders knew that requiring states to specify what they wanted to amend could cause Congress to oppose the change and ignore the states’ request. And doing do would stifle debate on possible amendments among state delegates – the same kind of debate that Congress now enjoys.
more
http://www.worldnewstrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=806
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
