A constitutional convention looms as a Republican-led effort to rewrite foundational U.S. laws, pushing gun rights, abortion bans, and corporate influence.
With states' decades-old requests under scrutiny, Democrats fear a "runaway convention" that could reshape the nation's governance.
Will it happen? Tell us in the comments.
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Thom: A constitutional convention—this is from The New York Times—is keeping Democrats up at night. The concern is that conservatives, controlling Congress, could control the convention and write all kinds of things into the Constitution. For example, the absolute right to own guns, an absolute ban on abortion, declaring that corporations are people, and that money given to politicians is free speech, not bribery.
Other proposals include requiring a two-thirds vote of Congress to raise taxes, while allowing spending cuts with a simple majority. There’s also the push for a balanced budget amendment, which, if unmet, would trigger cuts to Social Security and Medicare. These are all things Republicans have proposed in the past.
There are two ways to amend the Constitution. The first starts in Congress with two-thirds of the House and Senate, followed by approval from three-quarters of the states. This is how every constitutional amendment has passed. But there’s also the Article 5 convention.
There’s a group—fairly well funded—called Convention of States. You can see more at conventionofstates.com. This group, backed by some very wealthy people, has been working for years to bring about an Article 5 convention. They need 34 states to sign on, and Republican lawyers believe they’ve already hit that number.
Their argument? If a state ever called for a constitutional convention or even for a constitutional amendment—no matter how long ago—that call could count. By that logic, they claim they already have 34 states. If Republicans control the House and Senate, and with Trump signing off, they could call a convention and start rewriting the Constitution as soon as next month.
According to The New York Times, California Democratic State Senator Scott Wiener—who represents San Francisco—introduced legislation yesterday to rescind the state’s seven active calls for a constitutional convention. Some of these calls date back decades. He said:
“There’s a strong possibility of a runaway convention. I do not want California to inadvertently trigger a constitutional convention that ends up shredding the Constitution.”
Jodey Arrington, a hardcore right-wing Republican from West Texas and chairman of the House Budget Committee, is leading this effort in the House. He believes they now have enough states.
Since 2016—the year Trump was first elected—nine states with Democratic-controlled legislatures have been concerned enough to rescind their decades-old requests for constitutional amendments. They fear opening the door for a Republican-led Congress and state legislatures to pursue a conservative revision of the laws underpinning national governance.
Following last month’s elections, 28 state legislatures are controlled by Republicans. Meanwhile, The New York Times points out that 34 states appear to have standing requests to change the Constitution, some dating back more than 150 years.
Donald Trump’s rationale for calling a constitutional convention is to undo birthright citizenship. He wants to make it so that both parents must be U.S. citizens for a child to be granted citizenship.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law—one of America’s top constitutional scholars—says these concerns are very legitimate. Chemerinsky, who wrote a book about the Constitution, has been warning about this for years.
(Continues)
