The Article V movement

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next, checking the power of the federal government.

The movement for a Convention of States is picking up across the country. The goal is to amend the Constitution through a convention of state legislatures, rather than Congress.

The idea is to give power back to the states, and to the people.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has the story.

EMMA EICHER: In January this year, the Kansas House of Representatives passed a resolution to join the Convention of States. It’s the 20th state so far.

REP. REBECCA SCHMOE: We are calling for a Convention of States to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for members of Congress and federal officials.

A Convention of States is an alternative way to pass Constitutional amendments. The concept relies on Article V of the Constitution, which allows either Congress to pass amendments, or 34 state legislatures can apply to Congress to call a constitutional convention.

The group, Convention of States Action, is spearheading the movement. Billy Knorpp is the Idaho director.

KNORPP: Article V of the Constitution allows two different ways for an amendment to be proposed to the Constitution. If you can get two thirds of the states to sign or to pass exactly the same resolution that calls for a Convention of States, then a Convention of States would be called...

The organization wants a Convention of States in response to expanding federal power. Knorpp says one item on the agenda for a possible amendment is term limits on Congress.

KNORPP: Many of the senators and representatives have spent their whole lives in Congress. Our founders never intended it would be a lifetime job to be a senator or representative for the country.

Another priority is the nation’s 38 trillion dollars of national debt, a number that ticks higher every second. 

Dan Foreman is a Republican Idaho State Senator.

DAN FOREMAN: We're on a collision course with financial destruction, so we need to do something.

The U.S. has never held an Article V Convention of States. The closest historical parallel is the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

There, state delegates took the opportunity to write the Constitution as we know it today. It’s the best example of states convening to place guardrails on federal power.

FOREMAN: They gave us Article Five as part of the Constitution. They wouldn't have done that if they hadn't envisioned someday that we would need to use it, and we do need to use it.

Last year, Idaho legislators tried to pass a resolution to join the Convention and met strong pushback. Idaho is a deep red state, but there isn’t a united front on this issue within the Republican party.

Idaho is a microcosm of challenges the Convention faces in other Republican-led chambers, where disagreement stretches across both sides of the aisle.

FOREMAN: Some of the concerns are legitimate. They're voiced by patriotic citizens that are genuinely afraid of a Convention.

Foreman says the biggest pushback against the Convention is that it could go beyond its intended scope.

Opponents worry that a so-called “runaway Convention” might result in radical political agendas being pushed all the way through to a Constitutional Amendment.

Another concern is that Americans aren’t united enough to produce meaningful change.

But Director Billy Knorpp says the ratification of Amendments is a strict process.

KNORPP: The convention can only propose, not ratify. And nothing becomes part of the Constitution unless 38 states ratify it.

State delegates at the Convention must also stick to a predetermined agenda with penalties in place if they exceed it. But legal scholars are uncertain whether these restrictions would actually be enforced.

KNORPP: The states determine the agenda. The states select and instruct and limit their delegates. The states retain enforcement power. They can recall, replace, and penalize their delegates that go.

Fourteen states will consider passing a resolution on the Convention of States this year. And seven states have already passed the resolution in one chamber, but not the other.

Here’s Senator Foreman again:

FOREMAN: I think the American people today are of the same bloodline that the Founding Fathers were. I think we're equal to them in every way, because we're Americans and because we do care about our country, and I think we'll rise to the challenge and do just as good a job as they did.

Foreman says he’s optimistic that more legislatures will join the movement, making the states a substantial force in the bid to check the federal government’s power.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Eicher.

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