Members of the South Carolina General Assembly are attempting to pass a resolution to rescind every live application to Congress calling for a convention to propose amendments, under Article V of the Constitution, otherwise known as a federal constitutional convention (Con-Con).
House Joint Resolution 3395 (H.3395) is sponsored by Representative Steven Long (R-Spartanburg) and three other representatives. If enacted, it would rescind every live, or extant, application by the General Assembly for an Article V constitutional convention. H.3395 declares:
The General Assembly of South Carolina shall rescind, repeal, cancel, nullify, and supersede to the same effect as if they had never been passed, any and all extant applications by the General Assembly to the Congress of the United States of America to call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America, pursuant to the terms of Article V thereof, regardless of when or by which session or sessions of the General Assembly such applications were made and regardless of whether such applications were for a limited convention to propose one or more amendments regarding one or more specific subjects or purposes or for a general convention to propose an unlimited number of amendments upon an unlimited number of subjects.
An Article V constitutional convention is unnecessary to protect individual liberty and limit the size and scope of government. If anything, a constitutional convention would more than likely undermine those protections and increase the size and scope of the federal government rather than impose any meaningful limitations on its jurisdiction, as the resolution purportedly seeks to accomplish.
The massive expansion of government and growing infringements on our liberties are not because of “problems” or “flaws” with the Constitution, but rather due to misinterpretation, wrongful application, or lack of enforcement altogether. If applied faithfully and accurately, in accordance with its original meaning, at least 80 percent of the federal government’s programs would likely be found unconstitutional.
This fact negates any reason for convening an Article V convention today. The correct solution is constitutional enforcement, not a constitutional convention.
Rather than passing Article V convention applications, which risk a runaway convention threatening our God-given rights and individual liberty, the General Assembly should consider Article VI and nullify unconstitutional laws.
Above all, urge your state representative and senator to support H.3395, rescind all Article V constitutional convention applications, and to consider nullification as a safe and constitutional means to limit government instead.
