Amending the Constitution by Convention: A Complete View of the Founders’ Plan (Part 1 in a Series)

by Robert Natelson

Overview

Americans are increasingly questioning - and resisting - the endless growth of the federal government. Part of this resistance finds voice in efforts to enforce state sovereignty through litigation and legislation such as the Health Care Freedom Act and the Firearms Freedom Act. Measures such as these protect existing, fundamental rights from erosion at the federal level. But the growing discontent has also reignited interest in an even more direct route for the people and the states to regain control over the federal government - the Article V constitutional amendment process.

Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, the states have the power to apply to Congress to hold a convention for the purpose of proposing constitutional amendments. This power was meant to provide a fail-safe mechanism to control the federal government.

This report demonstrates that the historical record during the Founding era establishes a clear roadmap to guide the Article V amendment process. Among other seminal discoveries, this report reveals that the Framers rejected drafts of Article V that contemplated the very kind of wide-open convention that could “run away,” substituting instead a provision for a limited-scope convention, attended by state-chosen delegates, and addressed to specific subject matters.

Of course, abuses of the Article V constitutional amendment process are possible. But that possibility must be viewed against the clear and present danger to individual rights and freedom of doing nothing. This report recommends that states seriously consider initiating the Article V constitutional amendment process to restrain the federal government.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012849199
Publisher:	Goldwater Institute
Publication date:	09/16/2010
Series:	Amending the Constitution by Convention , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	441 KB

About the Author

Rob Natelson is a leading expert on the American Founding. His publications on the Constitution's original meaning have pioneered the use of such critical, but formerly neglected, historical sources as eighteenth-century law, language, and drafting practice. In 2010, Cambridge University Press published his co-authored work on the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause.

Rob also is the author of The Original Constitution: What It Really Said and Meant, a survey for the lay reader of the entire Constitution's meaning immediately after adoption of the Bill of Rights. He has published literally hundreds of articles, chapters, books, and monographs on the Constitution, legal history, politics, real estate, and other subjects.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Rob practiced law and ran his own businesses, primarily in Colorado. In 1987, he became Professor of Law at the University of Montana where, in addition to his teaching and writing, he became Montana's best-known grassroots leader -- successfully fighting for lower taxes, privatization, and more effective public service delivery. In 2000, he ran second among five candidates in the open primary for Governor of Montana.

Rob spent much of 2005 researching the Founding Era at the University of Oxford in England. In 2010, he left his law professor position with the University of Montana to move back to Colorado, where he is Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Independence Institute.