The Convention of States movement has the facts on its side. The nation's preeminent Article V expert, Prof. Rob Natelson, supports the Convention of States Project, and his research has largely put to rest the worries and objections of the past.
But sometimes fears still rise to the surface. One such article was written by Britton Wolf and published in FITS News, but Wolf's misguided contentions were quickly answered by another author, Laird Minor.
Minor addresses the confusion between a constitutional convention and a Convention of States and notes that the Convention must stick to the amendment topics listed in the resolution. He also points out that states will be able to recall their delegates for proposing improper amendments.
But the best answer to the "runaway convention" objection resides in the Constitution itself: 38 states must ratify any amendments that come out of the Convention:
Finally, it must be remembered that any amendments proposed by the COS are subject to ratification by the states in the normal manner. All we’re talking about here is how amendments are proposed, not how they are ratified. If the COS came up with some truly horrible proposals, do you really think that 38 of the states would ratify them? Put differently, a mere 13 states could effectively veto them.
The Framers gave us Article V precisely because they anticipated that future Congresses would be likely to resist proposing amendments which restrict their own power. That is simply human nature, obvious to anyone who gives the matter a little thought. A Convention of States is the only means by which the states can effectively reclaim some of the powers usurped by Washington. We should not be afraid to use it. Many of us complain about federal over-reach, yet when it comes to actually taking concrete action to rein it in some, like Mr. Wolf, get cold feet. There is no downside risk to holding a Convention of States; the only “risk” is that it will fail.
And that is no risk at all.
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