Nebraska Becomes 17th State To Call For Article V Convention Of States
BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD
JANUARY 28, 2022
The Nebraska legislature passed a resolution on Friday, January 28th 2022, calling for an Article V convention of states, making it the 17th state to do so.
After considering it for the past year, the Nebraska Legislature approved the measure in a 32-11 vote, with six senators abstaining or absent. According to the resolution, the legislature seeks to call a convention
“limited to proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.”
The application also comes with a five-year sunset clause, which notes that the legislature will rescind the measure by Feb. 1, 2027 if efforts to call a convention before then fail.
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, state legislatures are permitted to call a convention to propose amendments to the nation’s founding document without the approval of Congress. Two-thirds of states (34) are required for a convention to be called, with three-fourths of states (38) necessary for any amendment proposed to be ratified.
The alternative method, and the only one used thus far, is for Congress to propose amendments. Any amendment successfully passed by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and Senate are then sent to the states, where three-fourths are necessary to ratify.
State Sen. Steve Halloran, who introduced the resolution, celebrated its passage as “encouraging,” noting the bill’s success shows “that we respect the Constitution and the intent of the founding fathers when it comes to states having equal footing with the federal government.”
Nebraska was the second state to call for an Article V convention that week, after the Wisconsin legislature successfully passed a resolution on the matter on Tuesday, January 25th.
Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a student at the University of Mary Washington, where he plans to major in Political Science and minor in Journalism. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
Convention of states push hits halfway mark with Nebraska
January 28, 2022, 2:52 PM
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska on Friday became the 17th state to call for a convention of states to consider making changes to the U.S. Constitution, putting supporters halfway to their goal of getting the 34 states needed to trigger a convention.
The 17 states that have passed them so far are generally Republican-led and heavily concentrated in the South. In eight other states, the measure has advanced through at least one legislative chamber.
Opponents have raised concerns about a runaway convention that could lead to in drastic changes to the nation’s founding document and the freedoms it protects.
Some lawmakers argued that the convention would widen the nation’s political divisions and could ultimately backfire on Nebraska, leading to changes that hurt the state.
“How will they balance the budget? Will they go after farm programs first?” asked Sen. Steve Lathrop, of Omaha.
Sen. Megan Hunt, of Omaha, said she was concerned that special interest groups would try to influence the process, and argued that lawmakers should focus more on protecting voting rights.
Our Founders anticipated the federal government might get out of control at some point, and they gave us a constitutional mechanism to rein it in. It’s called a Convention of the States, outlined in Article V of the Constitution.
Article V reads in part,
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution….
Now again, some legal experts say that unless a Constitutional Convention is called to deal with a specific issue, a “runaway” convention could create chaos.
“Let’s assume that we get Congress to call for a convention, and we are deliberating about one item. Maybe that would stick. But how can you be confident that once you open the door to a constitutional convention, even if for one narrow amendment, that it won’t just become a runaway convention?” said Steve Hayward, a visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
“It seems to me that our Constitution may have problems these days, but I think most conservatives would be very nervous about opening it up to a new convention,” Hayward told Newsmax.
Columnist George Will, outlines an Article 5 convention focused on writing a narrowly drawn balanced-budget amendment.
“State legislatures can form a cooperative agreement — to call a convention for a one-item agenda of ratifying the balanced-budget amendment precisely stipulated in advance,” Will said.
Will notes that in calling for a convention, Congress has no discretion, meaning it is clear that if two-thirds of state legislatures ask, it must happen.”
Conservative radio talk-show host and author Mark Levin also has been out front in pushing for such a convention. In his best-selling book “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic,” he proposes 11 constitutional amendments that he believes should be considered by the gathering including such things as a balanced budget, term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court, and the ability for states to nullify federal laws with a 2/3 majority.
Another group, Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG), headed by Tea Party Patriots co-founder and former spokesman Mark Meckler, is promoting a convention.
Meckler states, “A Convention of States needs to be called to ensure that we are able to debate and impose a complete package of restraints on the misuse of power by all branches of the federal government.”
So, Where do we stand on the possibility of calling for a Constitutional Convention?
| States With a Standing Call for a Constitutional Convention: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming So we have 29 states so far. Although 32 states had initially passed resolutions calling for a Constitutional Convention (for the alleged purpose of adding a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution), 3 states — Alabama, Florida and Louisiana — rescinded their calls. The remaining 18 states have not called for a convention. Understand that most states joined the movement years ago pushing for the balanced budget amendment and when the initiative failed to gain momentum, most states just left a standing commitment to join if someone else picked up the ball. According to Article V of the Constitution, Congress must call a convention when 2/3rds of the states apply. That magic number is 34 states. With Nebraska and Wisconsin recently passing resolutions, we now stand at 17 states. |
While such an assembly has never been called, the convention route is seeing a new push under the current administration and its increase in federal control over the states.
You can find both liberals and conservatives who think it is a terrible idea. You can also find people on both sides who see it as the best solution to fix our broken government.
However, there are some huge problems with it.
The document itself gives no indication about how to call for or run a Constitutional Convention.
Congress has periodically tried to fill in those details, but it couldn’t agree on how it would work: Forty-one such bills were introduced in the Congress between 1973 and 1992, according to the Congressional Research Service, and none passed.
What does that mean? It means there are a ton of questions here to which no one knows the answer.
Can the state’s convention calls expire? Some are decades old. How similar does their wording have to be? Should applications that call for limiting the federal budget and setting term limits be counted with ones that call for a balanced budget? We don’t know.
What would the composition of a convention be? Would every state get a single representative? Would votes be apportioned according to population with larger states getting more votes? We don’t know.
And how would delegates be chosen? Election? Appointment? Lottery? We don’t know.
Would the convention be obliged to produce an amendment on a single issue or a set of issues (only a balanced budget amendment, for example)? Or would it be free to rewrite the country’s Constitution as it saw fit (single-sex marriage, clarifying the Second Amendment, vaccine mandates, immigration control, crime control, CRT in schools?
And do the states or the Congress even have the power to tell a convention what it can or can’t do? We don’t know.
And who gets to answer these questions and set these rules? Judging by the 41 times its members have tried to do so, Congress thinks it does; but state legislators think they dictate the terms. Who’s right? We don’t know.
What about lobbying? Imagine the huge amounts of money that would be spent trying to influence proposed amendments to the Constitution.
When Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) retired, he joined the Convention of States Project as a senior adviser.
Senator Coburn stated that, “I have joined the Convention of States Project because I believe it is our last, best hope for restoring our republic. I cannot sit idly by as my grandchildren’s future is bankrupted by an irresponsible, unaccountable and unrestrained government that was originally — and brilliantly — designed to protect their liberty.”
Coburn claimed that, “Although I am a proud conservative, this is not a partisan issue.”
The Founding Fathers distrusted government, but they came to realize that the absence of a strong central government was the greater threat to the new nation, and as a result, they gave us the United States Constitution and a strong central government. With the ability to tax. And to regulate. And to raise the standing army they had always feared.
As Coburn said, the Founding Fathers were brilliant. They learned from their mistakes.
Coburn claims that, “If there is one thing Americans have always agreed on it’s that government functions best when decisions are made closest to the people. Only through a Convention of States may the clear, unfettered voice of the people be heard, and overreaching government be reined in.”
He went on to say, “This is a movement whose time has come.
Personally, I am a big fan of the Constitutional Convention movement. Will it open up a can of worms? You bet. But maybe that is just what we need to do in order to let the people be heard and put the fear of God into our out of control federal bureaucrats.
It is time we took this country back and re-establish the founding principles our forefathers put in place back in 1789.