{"id":7643,"date":"2006-06-09T13:06:20","date_gmt":"2006-06-09T17:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2006-06-09T13:06:20","modified_gmt":"2006-06-09T17:06:20","slug":"a-constitutional-convention-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-constitutional-convention-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"A constitutional convention? Seriously?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I know conservatives are upset about the Senate rejecting their anti-[tag]gay[\/tag] constitutional [tag]amendment[\/tag], and I can appreciate their intentions to try again in the future. But to even consider, out loud, the idea of calling for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/article\/33989\">a [tag]constitutional convention[\/tag]<\/a> suggests the movement has gone from merely unhinged to completely over-the-edge.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A second constitutional amendment to ban same-sex [tag]marriage[\/tag] is expected to fail in the Senate today, but proponents of the resolution plan to stay the congressional course and not pursue the back-door option: a constitutional convention called by state legislatures. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>[T]he amendment&#8217;s supporters said they have no plans to abandon Capitol Hill; instead, they will try to force an amendment through a little-known clause in the Constitution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.archives.gov\/national-archives-experience\/charters\/constitution_transcript.html\">Article Five<\/a> of the Constitution explains how amendments can be ratified, the principal method starting in Congress, where measures have to earn two-thirds support in each chamber. But the same Article says two-thirds of state legislatures can bypass Congress and call for nationwide constitutional convention. There, lawmakers can propose any amendments they want, and those backed by three-quarters of legislatures become part of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>How many times has this happened in U.S. history? None. It&#8217;s hardly ever been talked about, even in jest. And yet, the Wall Street Journal <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/washwire\/2006\/06\/09\/immigration-debate-drifts-from-bush\/\">reported<\/a> today that &#8220;some&#8221; in the religious right are considering a push for a constitutional convention, which they believe might &#8220;prod Congress and provide hope to dispirited conservatives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most high-profile, far-right activists aren&#8217;t fond of the idea &#8212; Phyllis Schlafly called it &#8220;stupid&#8221; &#8212; but for some in the movement, it&#8217;s a thought that&#8217;s on the table. A lawyer for the American Family Association said, &#8220;We&#8217;ve almost been entirely focused on idea of getting the amendment out of Congress and signed by the president and then to the states. [The defeat of the amendment] may force us to re-examine things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Crazy. Simply crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know conservatives are upset about the Senate rejecting their anti-[tag]gay[\/tag] constitutional [tag]amendment[\/tag], and I can appreciate their intentions to try again in the future. But to even consider, out loud, the idea of calling for a [tag]constitutional convention[\/tag] suggests the movement has gone from merely unhinged to completely over-the-edge. A second constitutional amendment to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}