Timothy J. Dake
The United States Constitution provides two methods for proposing amendments, one through the Congress and one through the States which has yet to be tried. The safety of the state-application-and-convention method has been a topic of debate for decades. The main discourse centers around these key questions: Can an Article V amendatory convention runaway? Can it scrap the Constitution? Is an amendatory convention the same thing as a constitutional convention? Isn’t that what really happened in Philadelphia in 1787? Is an amendatory convention safe? Drawing on sources that include books, history and law journal articles, court decisions, convention proceedings and federal, state and territorial archives, the arguments both for and against an Article V amendatory convention are examined. The roots and history of intercolonial, interstate and intrastate conventions and the campaigns for a convention are studied for the determination of the types, procedures, powers and limits of conventions. The legal nature of conventions and the decisions of cases are reviewed to understand the body of law and the rules affecting amendatory conventions. A compilation of the Frequently Asked Questions regarding an amendatory convention are answered one-by-one.
