URGENT; ACT NOW: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called a special session starting on Monday, October 9. Convention of States (COS), a pro-Con-Con group, is pushing Governor Abbott to include a COS extension resolution — a disastrous proposal that could help destroy the U.S. Constitution and the God-given freedoms it protects — on the special-session agenda.
Please contact Governor Abbott and urge him against placing a COS extension resolution on the special-session agenda. You can contact him on his website HERE, or by calling 1-512-463-2000 (Office of the Governor Main Switchboard).
In 2017, the Texas Legislature enacted Senate Joint Resolution No. 2 (SJR 2), which applied for a convention based on the Convention of States (COS) organization’s model resolution, to propose amendments “to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and to limit the terms of office of federal officials and members of Congress.”
Although this resolution did not contain a sunset clause, the Legislature also enacted Senate Joint Resolution No. 38 (SJR 38), which rescinded most of the state’s previous Con-Con applications. Additionally, the resolution stated:
[T]he 85th Legislature of the State of Texas, Regular Session, 2017, hereby declares that any application to the United States Congress for the calling of a convention under Article V of the United States Constitution that is submitted by the Texas Legislature during or after this Regular Session shall be automatically rescinded, repealed, revoked, canceled, voided, and nullified if the applicable convention is not called on or before the eighth anniversary of the date the last legislative vote is taken on the application; …
Accordingly, SJR 2 is set to automatically expire in 2025. Since the Texas Legislature only meets every other year, it only has one more chance in 2025 (barring a special session this year) to remove the sunset clause. However, legislators introduced House Joint Resolution No. 35 (HJR 35) and Senate Joint Resolution No. 36 (SJR 36), which would repeal the sunset clause and, by extension, indefinitely extend SJR 2. Furthermore, Senate Joint Resolution No. 52 (SJR 52) would double the sunset period from eight to 16 years. Not only must legislators oppose SJR 52, HJR 35, and SJR 36, but they must introduce and enact a rescission resolution.
House Bill No. 1700 (HB 1700) and Senate Bill No. 610 (SB 610) also were introduced. These bills are designed to give false assurance that a convention won’t get out of control, doing this by ostensibly adding criminal penalties on unfaithful delegates. Such bills would be completely useless at preventing a runaway convention — for example, they don’t regulate delegates from other states, and don’t prevent delegates from proposing an entirely new constitution (in the 1787 Convention, states also attempted to limit delegates’ authority).
A Con-Con would be disastrous for our constitutional Republic. Any Article V convention, no matter how well intentioned, could lead to a runaway convention and reverse many of the Constitution’s limitations on government power and interference. In other words, a Con-Con could accomplish the same goals that many of its advocates claim to be fighting against. As evidence, a 2016 Convention of States (COS) controlled simulation resulted in amendments massively increasing the federal government and expanding its spending powers.
Additionally, by the last years of his life, the late Justice Antonin Scalia stood opposed to an Article V convention. Asked about it in a 2015 interview, he remarked that “This is not a good century to write a constitution.” And in 1979, the then-U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), correctly warned about a convention:
If we hold a constitutional convention, every group in the country — majority, minority, middle-of-the-road, left, right, up, down — is going to get its two bits in and we are going to wind up with a constitution that will be so far different from the one we have lived under for 200 years that I doubt that the Republic could continue.
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck, who was a longtime supporter of COS, withdrew his support for COS during the September 15, 2022 episode of the Glenn Beck Show. “We are not the people to open up this sacred document. We are not the people — that was a God-inspired document,” Beck said. “I withdraw my support. And I’m sorry to say that, but I withdraw my support.… This Constitution is wholly inadequate for anyone other than a religious and moral people. We are not those people.” Click HERE to watch a video of Beck reversing his endorsement of COS.
Furthermore, an Article V convention also threatens U.S. national security. In 1984, when the U.S. was only two states away from Congress calling a federal constitutional convention under the guise of proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, Republican former U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird wrote an op-ed warning of the perils convening a convention. Secretary Laird correctly noted that such a convention’s “scope and authority aren’t defined or limited by the Constitution.” Of the implications of holding such a convention, Laird warned:
If a convention were called, our allies and foes alike would soon realize the new pressures imposed upon our republic. The mere act of convening a constitutional convention would send tremors throughout all those economies that depend on the dollar. It would undermine our neighbors’ confidence in our constitutional integrity and would weaken not only our economic stability but the stability of the free world. That’s a price we cannot afford.
Both Goldwater and Laird considered an Article V Convention threatening to the continuity of the United States’ republican form of government. It would be foolhardy and downright reckless to disregard these and other legitimate concerns.
Accordingly contact and urge Governor Greg Abbott not to place a COS extension resolution (similar to SJR 52, HJR 35, SJR 36) or any new Con-Con application on the special-session agenda, and to instead rescind every existing “live” applications to Congress to call such a convention.
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