The Convention of States team in North Carolina is earning media attention, and we wanted to highlight a particularly successful town hall event covered in the Gaston Gazette and written by Gavin Stewart.
How well do you know the Constitution of the United States?
The question was asked by leaders of the Convention of States Action project on Tuesday night during a “town hall” meeting at the Gastonia Conference Center.
Convention of States Action is a nonprofit political organization calling for an Article 5 national convention at which states could propose amendments to the Constitution.
Possible amendments would control federal spending and impose term limits on officeholders.
The project leaders, made up of lawyers and legislative liaisons, say they know the Constitution well and decipher it the way the Founding Fathers intended in 1789, especially Article 5 of the Constitution.
Article 5 is the section that gives the states the power to propose and ratify amendments, hence the name Convention of States.
″[The Founding Fathers] knew that there would come a time where Congress would get too full of itself, too full of its own power and would never do anything, never propose any amendments of the sort that would be necessary to curtail that power and return it to the people through the states,” said Convention of States N.C. Director Mike Faulkenberry.
According to Article 5, it takes two-thirds of the 50 states to propose an amendment to the Constitution at a convention and takes three-fourths of the states to ratify those amendments.
Convention of States Action supporters live by and believe Article 5 will keep the federal government from abusing their power in a peaceful and organized way.
“I don’t think anybody would argue or disagree about the problem. We could put a lot of different names on it and particulars and describe certain scenarios and issues and get some specifics, but the bottom line is the federal government is just out of control,” Faulkenberry said.
“If you need any evidence... look at the debt. That’s going to crush us.”
More than 50 people from Gaston County and surrounding areas came to hear from the project’s leaders. Some came in support of the project, but others just wanted to learn.
The town hall was held to educate attendees about Convention of States and how they can get involved. Mark Meckler, a co-founder of the project, also welcomed questions during the gathering.
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