The latest ad hominem attack from constitutional deniers, claims that the Convention of States has a board member that has proposed a new constitution and is somehow waiting to install it when a convention is called.
Facts:
- Robert George is a professor at Princeton.
- George is a signer of the Jefferson Statement, which became the Legal Board of Reference for the Convention of States Project.
- The Legal Board of Reference assembled in 2014 to look at the language in the resolution that Convention of States uses in state legislatures, specifically to analyze if it was sound legal footing to call a convention limited to proposing amendments to the subject matter in the application under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.
- The Legal Board of Reference has not met since 2014 and is not a directing board for Convention of States.
- Robert George, as a member of academia, participated in an exercise with the National Constitution Center described as:
- The National Constitution Center’s Constitution Drafting project brings together three teams of leading constitutional scholars—team libertarian, team progressive, and team conservative—to draft and present their ideal constitutions. Team libertarian was led by Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute and included Timothy Sandefur of the Goldwater Institute and Christina Mulligan of Brooklyn Law School. Team progressive was led by Caroline Fredrickson of Georgetown Law School and included Jamal Greene of Columbia Law School and Melissa Murray of New York University School of Law. Team conservative was led by Ilan Wurman of Arizona State University College of Law and included Robert P. George of Princeton University, Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School, and Colleen A. Sheehan of Arizona State University. The project was generously supported by Jeff Yass.
- Each of the three teams in the project drafted their ideal Constitution, and Robert George was a part of Team Conservative.
- The project had nothing to do with Article V or Convention of States.
- The proposed documents were simply an exercise in theory, and certainly not anyone’s proposal to substitute our Constitution for any of their drafts.
- An Article V convention is NOT the avenue to propose a new constitution (Article V did not exist prior to our current Constitution).
- According to the text in Article V, a convention can only PROPOSE amendments to THIS constitution, not exchange it for a new one.
- The source for the legal opinion and author of the disinformation is Joanna Martin (Scutari) AKA Publius Huldah.
- Joanna Martin’s background is not exactly stellar, which you can read yourself on Ballotpedia: https://web.archive.org/web/20221110035004/https://ballotpedia.org/Publius_Huldah_(Joanna_Martin)
In short, consider the source. Take a look who opposes this effort starting with the George Soros funded Common Cause, and the 250 leftist organizations they have assembled to fight us. Ask yourself, why are they scared and why do they hand the talking points to online bloggers like Joanna Martin?
