State Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) proposed three bills that ask Congress to call for a Convention of States as allowed for in Article V of the U.S. Constitution, so the states can vote on and adopt amendments to the Constitution. Once two-thirds of state legislatures demand a Convention of States, also known as an Article V Convention, the Constitution mandates it. The states then run the convention, passing and ratifying amendments with a three-quarters majority — without Congress, the president, or governors involved.
Kern told The Arizona Sun Times, “The Founders gave us Article V to push back on a tyrannical Government. Nothing else is working and a runaway is not possible. If a delegate votes against Term Limits, the delegate is immediately removed and replaced with an alternate. George Soros has lots of money, but not enough to buy 38 States, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court.”
SCR 1014 would propose a “federal fiscal responsibility” amendment and states that enough states met the threshold in 1979, but Congress failed to order a convention.
SR 1001 lays out the requirements for the commissioners. It states that they will be selected by the leadership in the Arizona House and Senate, and it prohibits “runaway amendments,” described as “an amendment that is unrelated to the subject matter of the state’s article V application or any legislative instructions or that violates the people’s vote for or against ratification.”
SCR 1038 provides procedures for electing delegates to the Convention of States. The state will conduct an election, and the candidates must indicate whether they support ratifying the amendment. The voting will be in person only.
Most Republicans have traditionally backed a Convention of States, while Democrats have generally opposed holding one. Well-known conservatives who support one include conservative legal scholar John Eastman, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Christian leader James Dobson, Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk, Dr. Ben Carson, and Lt. Col. Allen West.
There are critics on both sides of the political aisle who warn that a “runaway” convention could go off-script and pass radical amendments not contemplated in advance. During a meeting in 2017 of 22 states that took place in Phoenix to discuss the mechanics of a Convention of States, then-State Senator Steve Smith (R-Maricopa) opposed the effort out of concern that a Democrat-controlled state could propose eliminating the Second Amendment and the convention running with that as long as it had approval from enough other states.
Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-03) authored a book in 2015, The Con of the Con-Con, arguing that the problems that need fixing don’t involve the Constitution.
Former Democratic Senator Russ Feingold and constitutional scholar Peter Prindiville claimed a runaway convention could happen in their 2022 book The Constitution in Jeopardy. The left-leaning American Constitution Society warned, “Factions of the far Right … are now actively working to orchestrate such a convention, with the goal of radically rewriting the U.S. Constitution to achieve partisan outcomes.”
There has never been a Convention of States. Instead, amendments to the Constitution were adopted through another provision in Article 5, with two-thirds of Congress approving the amendments and three-quarters of states ratifying them.
Some of the proposed amendments for a Convention of States include imposing term limits on various federal officials, a repeal of the 17th Amendment, and a limit on the size of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rob Natelson, a constitutional scholar and senior fellow at the Independence Institute who closely studies Article V of the Constitution, predicted there will be one within the next five years.
Nineteen Republican-controlled states have passed the Convention of States application, including Arizona in 2017, but 34 are needed. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he believes it won’t be necessary to get to that stage since the momentum will scare Congress.
“What is most likely is that as we move closer to a convention of the states that at the last minute, Congress will blink and pass the underlying amendments,” Cruz told Business Insider. “That’s what history shows us is likely to happen.”
There is a movement on the right that has named itself Convention of States, and the Academy of States is a bipartisan movement pushing the effort. Lawmakers gather at the American Legislative Exchange Council each summer where they go over draft language for legislation.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Anthony Kern” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 3.0. Background Photo “Arizona State Senate Chambers” by az.gov.
