States Have NO Control Over DELEGATES in a Federal Convention!

January 26, 2019 Agenda 21, ALEC, Arkansas Government, Arkansas Legislators, Article V Amendment Convention, Constitutional Convention, Featured

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States have NO control over the DELEGATES in a Federal Convention! Supporting evidence is below.

Senators, please don’t pull the trigger to apply for a convention just yet. You must think twice about ignoring the consequences, seriously!

State Delegates to an Article V convention are performing a federal function; they are NOT under the authority of the states.

Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides that Amendments will be proposed at the convention. Any state laws contrary to Article V must fall under the Supremacy Clause at Article VI, Clause 2, U.S. Constitution. Any state law which contradicts the Constitution is void.

The Constitution grants only the following powers to four different bodies regarding a U.S. Constitution Article V Convention:

Body	Power(s)
State Legislatures	a. Apply to Congress for a convention
Congress	a. Calls the convention b. Makes all laws necessary and proper for calling a convention (per U.S. Constitution Article I, §8, last clause)
Delegates to Article V Convention	Propose Amendments [assuming they don’t exercise their plenipotentiary powers and write a new Constitution.] (States have NO control over the delegates)
State Ratifying Conventions	Congress chooses the method of ratification, NOT the States

Now, here’s an update about what’s currently going on in Arkansas:

Sadly, SJR3, the resolution to call a convention, passed out of the Arkansas Senate State Agencies yesterday, January 24, 2019. This dangerous bill will go to the full Senate floor on Monday, January 28, 2019.

It appears SJR3 was amended intentionally and with out-of-state help by highly-paid lobbyists to deceive our legislators into voting for an Article V Convention:

SJR3 Amendment 1 (see below)

Amendment No. 1 to Senate Joint Resolution 3

Amend Senate Joint Resolution No. 3 as originally introduced:

Add Senator M. Johnson as a cosponsor of the bill

AND

Page 4, line 1, delete “and”

AND

Page 4, delete line 4 and substitute the following: “a violation of the instructions provided; and

(8) Delegates are bound to the instructions provided by the General Assembly and a failure to follow the instructions provided constitutes a breach of the delegate’s duty and subjects them to recall and replacement.”

What a joke! This so-called safety measure they placed in the amendment above on delegates can and will be easily circumvented!

ATTENTION, SENATORS! The amendment is a total sham! AGAIN — delegates CANNOT be controlled by ANY state legislature: any state that passes laws that purports to empower the legislature to control the delegates is unenforceable and ineffective because it’s based on false assumptions, so this means that they are NOT subject to state law!

Question: How did we get from our first Constitution to our second Constitution? (A simple question to all school-aged children)

Answer: There was a convention to propose amendments to our first Constitution.

In 1787, we invoked that RIGHT to throw off our first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, and set up a NEW Constitution – the one we have now – which created a new government!

DANGER! DANGER! Delegates would have the power to eliminate or dissolve the federal and state governments, dear reader! They are NOT subject to the states! Delegates have the inherent right, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, paragraph 2, “to alter or to abolish” our “Form of Government”.

Here’s an excellent flyer on why “faithful delegate” laws cannot control delegates. Feel free to pass it out!

So-called “faithful delegate” laws are an absolute joke! Delegates have plenipotentiary powers (full powers) AND sovereign immunity (no accountability) for WHATEVER THEY DECIDE TO DO! So, they’re a law unto themselves, NOT to the states!

Delegates are called to a federal convention by Congress. Rules are set by Congress, so Congress is NOT required to permit states to appoint delegates.
Delegates will perform a federal function of altering or replacing our federal constitution
Delegates will be performing a federal function, NOT a state function!

SENATORS, you’ve been lied to! This propaganda spread around from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model policy bill claimed that they have a remedy to stop a possible runaway convention. REALLY? Delegates are NOT “commissioned” from state legislatures.

Congressional Research Service Report R42589

Congress has traditionally laid claim to broad responsibilities

in connection with a convention, including:

(1) receiving, judging, and recording state applications;

(2) establishing procedures to summon a convention;

(3) setting the amount of time allotted to its deliberations;

(4) determining the number and selection process for its delegates;

(5) setting internal convention procedures, including formulae for allocation of votes among the states; and

(6) arranging for the formal transmission of any proposed amendments to the states.

Senators, our first Constitution was the Articles of Confederation. It had defects, so on February 21, 1787, the Continental Congress called a convention to be held in Philadelphia “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation”… but instead of proposing amendments, the Delegates wrote a new Constitution, with an easier mode of ratification, which created a new government. In Federalist No. 40 (15th para), James Madison invoked the Delegates’ right to abolish our form of government, as recognized in the Declaration of Independence, to justify ignoring their instructions and drafting a new Constitution which created a new government.

So! Ever since the federal convention of 1787, it has been known that any convention called to address our Constitution under Article V provides the opportunity to impose a new Constitution. That’s why the enemies of our Constitution periodically push for an Article V convention.

In response to the current push, constitutionalists are warning Americans that if Congress calls an Article V convention, a new constitution with a new mode of ratification is likely to be imposed – probably a new constitution which moves us into the North American Union. Get prepared for regional government.

There is a false assumption that all delegates for an Article V Convention will be selected from the state legislators. This is not true. Since Congress will be in charge of calling an Article V Convention and setting the rules that govern the Article V Convention, we really have no idea who these delegates will be.

Looks like the whole thing could end up being ratified by a national referendum, NOT ratified by the states!

What are states doing when they find out the truth about delegates in the Article V convention? Rescinding their applications they mistakenly applied for in haste because legislators were misled and lacked proper understanding of how dangerous a convention is! This South Dakota resolution below is an example:

SD HJR 1003 of 2018 rescinding Article V balanced budget applications and joins the legislatures of the states of Delaware, Idaho, Marlyland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, and Virginia who recently rescinded their Article V balanced budget applications.

This text below is what was used in South Dakota’s HJR 1003. The Supreme Court case is DILLON v. GLOSS:

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Congress alone reserves the power to “deal with subsidiary matters of detail… and Article V is no exception to the rule,” including matters regarding convention delegates and constitutional conventions called by Congress under Article V. Article V of the Constitution of the United States declares the “Mode of Ratification” of amendments arising from a Constitutional Convention, or convention of states, shall be determined NOT by the states or by the delegates, but by Congress, and the States have no authority to impose any penalty, sanction, or limitation on convention delegates, for such delegates represent the “People, and the sovereign”… right of the People to alter or to abolish [their Government], and to institute new Government and the States have no Constitutional authority to establish, or to predetermine the rules of order or operational aspects of a Constitutional convention, or convention of the states, called by Congress under Article V of the Constitution of the United States; and James Madison wrote in the Federalist No. 43 that Article V of the Constitution of the United States should be utilized only for repairing “discovered [constitutional] faults” or for “amendment of [constitutional] errors”; and nothing in Article V of the Constitution of the United States provides for, nor can any state application guarantee, equal suffrage or equal franchise, to each state at the constitutional convention, or convention of the states; and nothing in Article V of the Constitution of the United States limits the constitutional convention, or convention of the states, to any specific topic or to any specific list of topics; and nothing in Article V of the Constitutional of the United States guarantees, nor can any state application guarantee, state legislatures the right to a ratification vote on amendments arising from a constitutional convention of convention of the states…

In closing, the term “Convention of States” is a misnomer which gives the false impression that states control the convention. States will have ZERO control!

ACTION ITEM!

Readers, contact your legislators NOW and let them know to VOTE NO on SJR3. Click here for the email addresses of all 135 Arkansas legislators (Representatives and Senators) and ask them to vote NO on SJR 3 AND for the sponsor and co-sponsors to pull their support. Just do a copy and paste to your recipient box on your email. (You can either do “TO” or “CC” or “BCC” — your choice.)

Stay aware, stay involved, and stay vigilant.

Remember: eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

As always, you can find our email articles posted on our website: SecureArkansas.com. The Search box is a handy tool. For more information about a topic (such as FLUORIDE), just type it into the Search box on our website, and click Enter!

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