An extremely dangerous and risky Article V Amendments Convention/ Constitutional Convention (Con Con) resolution will be introduced in the Arkansas Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee THIS COMING THURSDAY, January 26, 2017 at 2:30 pm in the Old Supreme Court Room at the Capitol. If you are concerned about this destructive resolution passing out of this Senate committee, then you had better make some calls quickly before it ever gets to the committee! It is VITALLY important for you to contact everyone on the State Agencies Committee AND those legislators who have sponsored this untrustworthy Senate Joint Resolution SJR 2! Tell the sponsors to pull their sponsorship, and tell the legislators to VOTE NO on SJR 2! Our Constitution is in danger of being rewritten! We have written many articles in the past and recently about the dangers of an Article V Amendments Convention. (See the bottom of this email to read the resolution in its entirety.)
The Con-Con is being introduced in various nefarious forms (the terms are recycled and re-used over the years, perhaps in hopes that We the People would “forget” their anti-constitutional agenda), and they are as follows:
There is no such thing as a “Convention of States”; it’s a made-up term. The legal terminology is a federal Constitutional Convention (Con Con) which is what an Article V Amendments Convention actually will call for. As you know, after the Convention is called, then Congress would take over! And there are NO LIMITS on a Constitutional Convention’s purpose, procedure, agenda, election of delegates, OR the subject matter! (Article I, §8, clause 17)
Chief Justice Warren Burger said:
”There is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda. Congress might try to limit the convention to one amendment or to one issue, but there is no way to assure that the convention would obey. After a convention is convened, it will be too late to stop the convention if we don't like its agenda. The meeting in 1787 ignored the limit placed by the confederation Congress ‘for the sole and express purpose’.”
SJR 2 will be presented by Senator Gary Stubblefield (R) from Branch, Arkansas, the Vice Chair of the Senate State Agencies Committee. This is such a disappointment. We cannot believe that Senator Stubblefield is actually presenting this resolution! But he is…
Remember, NOW is the time to contact these legislators! You simply cannot wait any longer because Secure Arkansas believes they ALREADY have the votes secured to get this resolution out of committee, so it must be stopped! Only with your help can we be successful.
Call the Senate State Agencies Committee Members (even if they are NOT your home legislator)
Call the sponsors of SJR 2 (even if they are NOT your home legislator, but absolutely for sure if they are!)
Call the Senate switchboard and leave a message for your Senators and Representatives
Demand that the committee members (listed below) VOTE NO on the resolution SJR 2! Names listed below in red are known ALEC members (American Legislative Exchange Council). [We suspect that more of them are with ALEC.] How do you think they will vote?
Remember, ALEC is a corporate bill mill, and most legislation isn’t even written locally, and neither was this resolution SJR 2 !] So, ALEC, once again, has a stranglehold on this Senate committee! Remember that ALEC politicians cut backroom deals with ALEC. Through ALEC, Global Corporations are scheming to rewrite YOUR Rights and boost their revenues. This time they are scheming with the legislators to have a Constitutional Convention that could end our freedom forever. In ALEC’s own words, corporations have a Voice and a Vote.
State Agencies & Government Affairs – Senate
Also demand that the sponsors of SJR 2 remove their sponsorship and pull their support for this dangerous resolution. Here are their email addresses: copy and paste them into your email if you like, so you can email them all at one time. Below those is more detailed district and contact information about them.
linda.collins-smith@senate.ar.gov
robin.lundstrum@arkansashouse.org
mary.bentley@arkansashouse.org
trevor.drown@arkansashouse.org
michelle.gray@arkansashouse.org
karilyn.brown@arkansashouse.org
dan.sullivan@arkansashouse.org
austin.mccollum@arkansashouse.org
jeff.williams@arkansashouse.org
gary.stubblefield@senate.ar.gov
The names listed below in red font are known American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) members that are sworn to support the interest of the ALEC organization first. Whatever happened to supporting their constituents and upholding the Constitution??
Senators:
Title |
Name |
Phone |
|
District |
---|---|---|---|---|
Senator |
Gary Stubblefield |
6 |
||
Senator |
Bart Hester |
1 |
||
Senator |
Cecile Bledsoe |
3 |
||
Senator |
Terry Rice |
9 |
||
Senator |
Alan Clark |
13 |
||
Senator |
Scott Flippo |
17 |
||
Senator |
Linda Collins-Smith |
19 |
||
Senator |
Jason Rapert |
35 |
Representatives:
Title | Name | Phone | District | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Representative |
Bob Ballinger |
97 |
||
Representative |
Richard Womack |
18 |
||
Representative |
Justin Gonzales |
19 |
||
Representative |
Karilyn Brown |
41 |
||
Representative |
Dan Sullivan |
53 |
||
Representative |
Michelle Gray |
62 |
||
Representative |
John Payton |
64 |
||
Representative |
Josh Miller |
66 |
||
Representative |
R. Trevor Drown |
68 |
||
Representative |
Mary Bentley |
73 |
||
Representative |
Robin Lundstrum |
87 |
||
Representative |
Jeff Williams |
89 |
||
Representative |
Austin McCollum |
95 |
||
Representative |
Jim Dotson |
93 |
And/Or call the Capitol Switchboard and leave a message for your Representatives and Senators, and tell them to VOTE NO on SJR 2.
Capitol switchboard numbers:
Senate Session Number: 501-682-2902 (to leave a message for Senators)
House Session Number: 501-682-6211 (to leave a message for Representatives)
We’ve mentioned ALEC in many of our articles before, but in case you’re not aware: ALEC sponsored the deceptive and misleading Article V Handbook for the legislators and ALSO provides their model legislation, too, just like resolution SJR 2! Compare and see how much alike the model legislation from ALEC and the resolution SJR 2 look. This should prove to you that we are guided and governed by a shadow government! Remember: ALEC State Chairs and members are committed to supporting the interests the the ALEC organization first. (Not YOU!) Who do you think is running the state? In this case, it is ALEC, and the legislators who have sold us out. All you have to do is check the financial filings of your legislator on the Secretary of State site because it appears that the ALEC corporate members have bought off the legislature.
Bribing a member of the General Assembly or a state officer is a FELONY. From the Constitution of the State of Arkansas of 1874:
Article 5 section 35. Bribery of member of General Assembly or state officer.
Any person who shall, directly or indirectly, offer, give, or promise any money, or thing of value, testimonial, privilege or personal advantage to any executive or judicial officer, or member of the General Assembly; and any such executive or judicial officer, or member of the General Assembly, who shall receive or consent to receive any such consideration, either directly or indirectly, to influence his action in the performance or non performance of his public or official duty, shall be guilty of a felony, and be punished accordingly.
Currently, the lawmakers that ALEC has recruited for State Chairs in Arkansas are Senator Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot and Representative Jim Dotson of Bentonville. These State Chairs sign a contract with ALEC. To see the contract that the ALEC state chairs sign, click here and go to page 19, 20, and 21. This document is part of a large pdf document that covers the ALEC 40th Board Meeting which was held August 6, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.
Some of the items in the ALEC contract signed by the ALEC State Chair are as follows and are listed on page 19 of the ALEC 40th Board Meeting:
Support ALEC’s membership by efforts to increase state delegation by at least ten percent a year.
I will act with care and loyalty and put the interests of the organization [ALEC] first.
I promise to preserve the investment of time and money made over years by all the volunteers who created this organization [ALEC] and brought it to this point. Every State Chair is making a statement of faith to carry out the above agreements to the best of our ability, each in our own way, with knowledge, approval and support of all.
Legislators must inform ALEC of any public records/FOIA request that include ALEC documents.
[emphasis ours]
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In closing, we want to share these wise words spoken by an 18th Century British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke
So, let’s DO SOMETHING! Let’s contact those legislators!
Shown directly below is SJR 2 itself — for our readers who would like to print it out. As always, you may view the resolution on the Arkansas Legislature site by clicking here.
———————–
SJR 2
By: Senators G. Stubblefield, Hester, Bledsoe, Rice, A. Clark, Flippo, Collins-Smith, Rapert
By: Representatives Ballinger, Womack, Gonzales, Brown, Sullivan, M. Gray, Payton, Miller, Drown, Bentley, Lundstrum, J. Williams, McCollum, Dotson
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
APPLYING TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO CALL A CONVENTION FOR PROPOSING AMENDMENTS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE V OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, LIMITED TO PROPOSING AMENDMENTS THAT IMPOSE FISCAL RESTRAINTS ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, LIMIT THE POWER AND JURISDICTION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, AND LIMIT THE TERMS OF OFFICE FOR ITS OFFICIALS AND FOR MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS.
Subtitle
APPLYING TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO CALL A CONVENTION FOR PROPOSING AMENDMENTS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE V OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.
WHEREAS, the founders of the United States Constitution empowered state legislators to be guardians of liberty against excessive use of power by the federal government; and
WHEREAS, the federal government has created a crushing national debt through improper and imprudent spending; and
WHEREAS, the federal government has ceased to operated under a proper interpretation of the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, the federal government has invaded the legitimate roles of the states through the manipulative process of federal mandates, most of which are unfunded to a great extent; and
WHEREAS, it is the solemn duty of the states to protect the liberty of our people, particularly for the generations to come, by proposing amendments to the United States Constitution through a convention of the states under Article V of the United States Constitution for the purpose of restraining these and related abuses of power,
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS AND BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, A MAJORITY OF ALL MEMBERS ELECTED TO EACH HOUSE AGREEING THERETO:
THAT the General Assembly hereby applies to the United States Congress, under the provisions of Article V of the United States Constitution, for the calling of a convention of the states limited to proposing amendments to the United States Constitution that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of the United States Congress.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Secretary of the Senate is hereby directed to transmit copies of this application to the President of the United States Senate, the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the members of the Arkansas congressional delegation, and the presiding officers of each house of the legislatures in the several states, requesting their cooperation.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT this application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the United States Constitution until the legislatures of at least two-thirds (2/3) of the several states have made applications on the same subject.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the General Assembly adopts this application expressly subject to the following reservations, understandings, and declarations:
(1) An application to the United States Congress to call an amendment convention of the states
pursuant to Article V of the United States Constitution confers no power to the United States
Congress other than the power to call such a convention. The power of the United States
Congress to exercise this ministerial duty consists solely of the authority to name a reasonable
time and place for the initial meeting of a convention;
(2) The United States Congress shall perform its ministerial duty of calling an amendment
convention of the states only upon the receipt of applications for an amendment convention for the
substantially same purpose as this application from two-thirds (2/3) of the legislatures of the
several States;
(3) The United States Congress does not have the power or authority to determine any rules for the
governing of a convention for proposing amendments called pursuant to Article V of the United
States Constitution. The United States Congress does not have the power to set the number of
delegates to be sent by any state to such a convention, nor does it have the power to name
delegates to such a convention. The power to name delegates remains exclusively within the
authority of the legislatures of the several states;
(4) By definition, an amendment convention of the states means that states shall vote on the basis of one (1) state, one (1) vote;
(5) A convention for proposing amendments convened pursuant to this application shall be limited to consideration of the topics specified herein and no other. This application is made with the express understanding that an amendment that in any way seeks to amend, modify, or repeal any provision of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution shall not be authorized for consideration at any stage. This application shall be void ab initio if ever used at any stage to consider any change to any provision of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution;
(6) Pursuant to Article V of the United States Constitution, the United States Congress may determine whether proposed amendments shall be ratified by the legislatures of the several states or by special state ratification conventions. The General Assembly recommends that the United States Congress select ratification by the legislatures of the several states; and
(7) The General Assembly may provide further instructions to its delegates and may recall its
delegates at any time for a breach of a duty or a violation of the instructions provided.
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Stay tuned! And let us know what you hear back from the legislators!
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Securing the blessings of liberty,
Secure Arkansas
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