by:  Diane Benjamin

Saturday, at least 101 elected officials from at least 34 states are meeting at Mt.Vernon to discuss a Constitutional Convention called by the states under Article 5 of the Constitution.  Radio host and Constitutional lawyer Mark Levin sparked this debate with his book The Liberty Amendments.  Two-thirds of the states can propose amendments and three-fourths of the states are needed to approve them.

At least one prominent group is calling a constitutional convention a BAD idea and not legal.  They are wrong.  Since three-fourths of the states must approve any amendments, the chances of bad amendments being approved are miniscule.

The Founders wrote Article 5 into the Constitution so the States could preserve the Constitution and stop an out of control Federal Government.  If $17 Trillion and climbing of debt, out of control regulations, and disregard for the Constitution doesn’t take extreme measures to fix, what does it take?

The Founders expected the people to preserve the Constitution, it has begun.

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.