ACT NOW: Members of the Utah State Legislature are seeking to pass a resolution (HJR 6) applying to Congress to “call a Convention for proposing Amendments,” under Article V of the Constitution, also referred to as a constitutional convention (Con-Con).
House Joint Resolution 6 (HJR 6) has been introduced by state Representative Ken Ivory, who also served as the “Convention President” for the Article V Convention of States Simulation in 2016. Ivory’s resolution urges Congress to call a convention to propose a constitutional amendment “to set a limit on the number of terms that a person may be elected as a member of the [U.S. House and Senate].”
HJR 6 claims it is “limited to” congressional term limits. However, any convention, no matter how well-intentioned, could lead to a runaway convention that would 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.
Furthermore, term limits would do nothing to limit the federal government or improve our representation. For example, they would throw out the best congressmen along with the worst.
Furthermore, term limits ignore the most serious problems our nation faces, including fiscally-irresponsible policies and lack of adherence to the Constitution. In fact, we already have term limits — elections — while formal term limits on the U.S. president, by contrast, have failed to rein in the executive branch.
And in 2018, Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted:
I don’t support a COS. If my colleagues won’t follow the present constitution, why would they follow a new one?
In another tweet on December 30, 2022, Massie correctly noted that:
Repeal of the [16th and 17th amendments and the Federal Reserve Act] would obviate any need or want for a term limit amendment and a balanced budget amendment.
The document our founders gave us was genius, and we tamper with it at our own peril.
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia understood the danger of a constitutional convention. In 2015, Scalia reiterated his opposition to an Article V convention, stating “this is not a good century to write a constitution.” Furthermore, what kind of delegates would Utah send to such a convention? Constitutionalist conservatives or RINO moderates and liberals?
On December 9, 2021, constitutionalist U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), warning against a Con-Con, tweeted on X:
Show me a single state where Constitutionalists comprise a majority of the state legislature.
At this point in history, an Article V Convention of the States would be a disaster.
In 1979, then-U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, correctly warned about an Article V 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.
Goldwater considered an Article V Convention as threatening the continuity of the United States’ republican form of government. It would be foolhardy and downright reckless to disregard these and other legitimate concerns.
An Article V convention possesses the inherent power to propose any changes to the U.S. Constitution, including drafting and proposing an entirely new “modern” (i.e. socialist) constitution. Instead, the Utah Legislature should consider Article VI and nullify unconstitutional laws.
Furthermore, state lawmakers should also consider rescinding any and all previously passed Article V convention applications to Congress, regardless of the desired amendment(s). Passing rescission resolutions will help prevent aggregating past Article V convention applications with those from other states to force Congress to call a convention.
Above all, urge your state representative and senator to oppose HJR 6, and all other pro-Article V convention resolutions and to instead consider nullification as a safe and constitutional means to limit government.
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