Name: A Radical Right-Wing Dream To Rewrite The Constitution Is Close To Coming True
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A Radical Right-Wing Dream To Rewrite The Constitution Is Close To Coming True

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×U.S. EditionPart of HuffPost Politics. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.×AdvertisementAdvertisement“Any civil rights, any constitutional protection in the Constitution could be up for grabs in this constitutional convention.”- Jay Riestenberg, Common CauseAdvertisementAdvertisementWyoming joined four years later, but no other state picked up the baton until the 1970s, when conservatives widely adopted the cause. Between 1973 and 1979, 29 states called for a convention to consider a Balanced Budget Amendment, a proposal that economists have repeatedly warned would hamstring the federal government’s tax-and-spend authorities, leave it unable to respond to economic crises and force it to gut popular programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.AdvertisementAdvertisementWalker, the former Wisconsin governor, laid out that plan during an ALEC annual meeting last July as conservatives once again railed against extra-constitutional abuses of power related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theory rests on the fact that, in addition to the states that have active Balanced Budget Amendment resolutions on the books, have passed calls for a plenary convention to consider general changes to the document.AdvertisementCombine them, and the necessary two-thirds of states have filed petitions, meaning Congress has an obligation to call a convention. If Congress does not comply, a friendly state attorney general will sue in court, . The plenary convention calls are not new and are largely, if not entirely, unrelated to the Balanced Budget Amendment petitions. New York’s, for instance, dates to 1789, before the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Nevertheless, conservative legal scholars like Natelson have argued that, when combined with the Balanced Budget Amendment resolutions. That doesn’t mean that Natelson thinks Walker’s plan will work. Asked if he thought a legal order against Congress would succeed, he answered with a flat “no.” Hesitant to project when a convention call might actually reach the necessary threshold, Natelson guessed that any legitimate push is at least a few election cycles away. Common Cause and other groups have, over the last few years, focused their efforts on persuading states with longstanding convention resolutions to rescind them, with some success. Colorado’s state legislature in April all of the previous convention resolutions its general assembly had passed in an effort to ensure the state did not play an unwitting role in the calling of a new convention.Colorado’s move could be a striking blow to the movement to call a convening of the states: Now, combining the Balanced Budget Amendment and plenary resolutions doesn’t add up to the necessary 34.AdvertisementStill, that Walker and other conservatives may even be willing to try the legal route has aroused concern among convention opponents. “They know their agenda is unpopular,” Riestenberg said. “So they have to find a different way to push their agenda without getting legislators or voters to care about it.” If the Balanced Budget Amendment convention is the closest one to fruition, it’s Meckler’s group that appears to have the most momentum and money behind it. Meckler launched the Convention of States Project in 2014 under the umbrella of another group he formed after splitting with Tea Party Patriots, the organization he co-founded to help foment protests in the earliest days of that “movement.” Meckler’s proposal does not limit the ideal convention to a single idea like term limits ― another popular focal point for convention advocate ― or a Balanced Budget Amendment; rather, it broadens the scope of the gathering to that will “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 Congress.”AdvertisementThe effort quickly gained steam. Georgia, Alaska and Florida passed Convention of States proposals in 2014, and five others ― Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee ― followed over the next two years.Meckler signed a litany of prominent conservatives onto the effort. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) was an early endorser, according to the organization’s website. Members of the Republican establishment (like ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush), its right-wing conservative fringe (like former Florida Rep. Allen West), and its media echo chamber (Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro) have also given the idea their blessing. Trump’s victory in 2016 did not stall the push. Seven states ― Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Texas and Utah ― joined the crusade between 2017 and 2019, bringing the total to 15. In at least a half-dozen other states, single legislative chambers passed resolutions that failed to fully advance. AdvertisementBut everything else about it suggests rather clearly that, much like the tea party, the push for a convention is more of a priority for its wealthy, right-wing backers than it is for the conservative grassroots. “I’m not convinced that the Convention of States Project really is a movement. It’s a well-funded organization that passes itself off as a movement.”- David Super, Georgetown UniversityThe Convention of States Project’s source of funding is opaque, but its parent organization received from groups linked to brothers Charles and David Koch and other major conservative donors between 2010 and 2018, according to IRS filings reported by the Center for Media and Democracy . The Mercer family, which through its foundation has showered tens of millions of dollars on right-wing causes over the last decade, has donated at least $500,000 to the group, CMD has . AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMeckler and the Convention of States Project did not respond to HuffPost’s interview requests or questions about their effort. But Meckler has similarly dismissed fears of a “runaway convention” in recent interviews with other outlets. (Term limits, abolition of the Department of Education and a requirement that two-thirds of states agree to any change in immigration law top Meckler’s priority list, .) And over the last few years, his group has ramped up its efforts to alleviate those concerns and bolster support among newer constituencies, making its case and individual gun owners during .Last year, Meckler and the conservative groups pushing for a convention found another source of right-wing frustration to stoke: the COVID-19 pandemic. As governors used emergency executive powers to shut down businesses and impose mask requirements and other restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus, ― including ALEC and FreedomWorks ― began to outside state capitols. Meckler was one of the chief proponents of the so-called “reopen” movement, such that it was one. Much as they had with the tea party movement, the groups wielded rhetoric about “liberty” and “freedom” to provoke small but angry gatherings, then translated that energy into ― in particular, restrictions on the executive powers of democratically elected governors, many of whom lost those powers as soon as conservative legislators wielding ALEC’s model bills returned to state capitols. Yet if they hoped the energy fueling those protests would generate similar momentum behind calls for a new convention, it hasn’t yet materialized: Conservative state legislatures in Montana, New Hampshire and South Dakota have already killed such resolutions this year, and the proposal went nowhere in Kentucky, one of several states Meckler’s group has prioritized. Others face uncertain futures in legislative sessions crowded with other GOP priorities. No such resolution has passed yet this year, but Wisconsin Republicans have advanced Convention of States Project resolutions out of committees in both chambers of the state legislature and could bring them up for floor votes soon. (Sixteen of the GOP lawmakers behind the resolutions have links to ALEC, the Center for Media and Democracy .) South Carolina’s version of the resolution out of a state House committee for the second straight year, but it’s not clear whether it will receive a full vote. (The sponsor of that bill, state Rep. Bill Taylor, declined an interview request. Sponsors in four other states did not respond to HuffPost’s inquiries.)Advertisement“You can see how that appeals to people who have lost faith in conventional politics and see themselves as the new founding generation. I think it’s a delusion, but I can see how a lot of people are attracted to it.”- Walter Olson, Cato InstituteAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNatelson, the conservative scholar who supports the Article V convention, believes all of these arguments amount to hyperventilating nonsense. While no Article V convention has been held, there is sufficient precedent and constitutional understanding to determine how the founders intended such a convention to work, and to protect it from going off the rails, he argued.The convention, he said, would almost certainly be closely monitored by the media and state lawmakers, keeping it from going beyond its scope. States, he said, could recall delegates who went rogue, if they chose to. And the high threshold required for ratification of any amendment ― 38 state legislatures must eventually approve ― means that only incredibly popular proposals would stand even the slightest chance of ratification. “I would say term limits, if the amendment is drafted well, would have a high chance of being ratified,” Natelson said. “Some kind of simple fiscal restraint that is well-drafted and has exceptions for emergencies probably would be ratifiable. And my guess that some kind of campaign finance reform, if it got two-thirds of the states to propose it, would probably be ratifiable.”And fears that the convention would quickly be co-opted by special interest groups, lobbyists, and those big donors?Advertisement“Like Congress?” he laughed.Olson is similarly skeptical that a convention would produce radical change, not in a polarized country that hasn’t been able to alter its founding documents through more tried and true means. No amendment has been added to the Constitution since 1991, and that only happened because enough states finally ratified a proposal put forth 202 years prior. It’s been half a century since an amendment was proposed and ratified in a timeframe typical of the majority of the other alterations. “If the national consensus is missing for the retail, one-at-a-time amendments, then the national consensus is also absent for a big, radical change-lots-of-things-at-once national convention,” Olson said of the Convention of States Project’s plan. “People are deluding themselves if they think that kind of huge national consensus exists for either conservative or liberal views.”But he worries a convention could lead to an even bigger splintering of the country and an even deeper legitimacy crisis for its democracy. Without a clear mandate or obvious rules it should follow, any convention, Olson argued, would inherently be seen as illegitimate by a huge swath of a country. “If the GOP is able to control its grasp on the states following the next round of redistricting, then adopting amendments via [constitutional convention] would enable them to dominate law and policy in a majority of states, even if they lose power in Washington or at the gubernatorial level.”- Arn Pearson, executive director of the Center for Media and DemocracyAdvertisementAdvertisementSuggest a correction

×U.S. EditionPart of HuffPost Politics. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.×AdvertisementAdvertisement“Any civil rights, any constitutional protection in the Constitution could be up for grabs in this constitutional convention.”- Jay Riestenberg, Common CauseAdvertisementAdvertisementWyoming joined four years later, but no other state picked up the baton until the 1970s, when conservatives widely adopted the cause. Between 1973 and 1979, 29 states called for a convention to consider a Balanced Budget Amendment, a proposal that economists have repeatedly warned would hamstring the...

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A Radical Right-Wing Dream To Rewrite The Constitution Is Close To Coming True

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