We've known for years that the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia supported a Convention of States to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government. But now we've uncovered never-before-seen footage of Justice Scalia explaining his position on an Article V Amendments Convention.
In the clip below, Justice Scalia explains how a Convention of States can propose amendments to fix issues that Congress refuses to address.
"The Congress is simply unwilling to give attention to many issues which it knows the people are concerned with," Scalia explains. "Which issues involve restrictions upon the federal government's own power. I think the founders foresaw that, and they provided this method in order to enable a convention to remedy that."
"If the only way to get that convention is to take this minimal risk then I think it is a reasonable risk to be undergone."
"The alternative is continuing with a system that provides no means of obtaining a constitutional amendment except through the kindness of the Congress," he continues, "which has demonstrated that it does not want to have any other way to get a constitutional amendment."
"The Congress knows that the people want more fiscal responsibility but it is unable to provide it. Now what we need is some means at the federal level like proposition 13. The Constitution has provided it."
"I suggest that if the only way to clarify the law, if the only way to remove us from utter bondage to the Congress is to is to take what I think to be a minimal minimal risk on on this limited convention then let's take it."
Click here to watch more video of Scalia.
Click here to read the full transcript from the AEI event at which Justice Scalia is speaking, and click here to watch the full discussion.
Note: The transcript has been cleaned up to improve readability. Scalia's comments from the video above can be found on pages 4 and 12-13.
Also Note: When the event materials refer to a "constitutional convention," they mean an Article V Amendments Convention. Click here to learn about the difference between the two types of conventions.
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