Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Article V Conventions Proposed - Some Real Hope

http://www.westernfreepress.com/2013/07/11/mark-levin-constitution-article-v-and-the-liberty-amendments/

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/07/radio_host_mark_levin_suggests_the_states_call_an_article_five_amendment_convention.html

Author, attorney, Constitutional scholar, and radio show host Mark Levin has voiced his support for an amendment process that gas been glossed over by most. Many Conservatives are understandably reluctant to support a Constitutional Convention as what occurs in such a forum could well turn out disastrously, with Leftist delegates running amok and creating a what would amount to a national government that is more unrecognizable than what we have before our eyes today. (For example, a unicameral legislature, an Executive who is elected by a parliamentary system, and the excising of equal representation of all states such as what we have in the Senate) Mr. Levin, however, after careful consideration of the provisions of Article V, states that it is time to have the individual states take upon themselves the power delegated to them under that article.

Our contributor Cincinnatus, for the record, beat Mr. Levin to the punch by at least four months in a conversation with me last winter - I will swear to it.

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/article-v.html

"Article V

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, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."



Mr. Levin rightfully notes that, two-thirds of the states make this move, and the proposed amendment(s) are passed by three quarters of the states, then Congress, The Supreme Court, and and President would literally be powerless to prevent them from being added to our Constitution and by extension becoming the Law of of the land.

In the Western Free Press link, Levin speaks in an embedded video. He stresses that George Mason, (Note that Mason was by no means a supporter of the Constitution when it was a new and unratified document as he feared its potential for abuse), was indeed a strong supporter of this alternative means by which the states could work together to restrain or correct a national government (Ours is only Federal in name - credit Tocqueville for that observation) and take steps to put the nation back on the right path.

Levin, being a person with a large following and all the influence that goes along  with that, is a good candidate to become a spark for such a movement. He noted in the video that Madison and Hamilton both mentioned the same process in the below-linked Federalist Papers links. I will have to read them myself tomorrow. The link for Levin's  new book, in which he details his arguments in support of this movement, is also linked at the bottom.

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