If the Amendment for Reform were already part of the Constitution it would be the key to reforming our government; but the central issue here is how can the Amendment for Reform itself be added to the Constitution. Reflecting upon the discussion at the beginning of this paper, it is a perfect certainty that this amendment as laid out and propounded above would absolutely never be proposed by Congress. Therefore, the only possible alternative is to pursue the National Constitutional Convention method, which was also discussed above as being fraught with risks and dangers. So, what should be done?
When seriously considering what to do, the surest course is for the several State Legislatures to petition Congress for a National Constitutional Convention in such a way that the risks are thoroughly constrained. So long as the risks are sufficiently constrained it should be possible to practically guarantee that the requested National Constitutional Convention has, by design, one and only one outcome, and that when the Amendment for Reform is proposed by two thirds of the state legislatures in accordance with Article V of the Constitution for ratification, and after which when ratified in accordance with Article V of the constitution by the required number of state legislatures (i.e., 38 ), then the Amendment for Reform will become the next amendment to the US Constitution. The way that this can be done is outlined below.
Interestingly, the first series of steps mimics the first part of the procedures specified by the Amendment for Reform itself; namely:
- Shop the draft for the Amendment for Reform among the fifty state legislatures with the intention to:
- Establish a delegation of five convention delegates (plus two or three alternates) to represent each of the fifty state legislatures at first the Preliminary Amendment Convention and also at the final National Constitutional Convention
- Call the Preliminary Amendment Convention with the primary agenda item being the establishment of the final draft of the Amendment for Reform. This will not be accomplished until Amendment for Reform is in such a satisfactory form that at least 38 state legislatures will:
- Agree to submit it in unison to Congress as the main part of a petition to call a National Constitutional Convention;
- Vote to approve it in unison at the National Constitutional Convention; and
- Individually ratify it as the next amendment to the United States Constitution.
The three objectives of the Preliminary Convention itemized just above make up the central point of the strategy here, but not the whole objective.
To reiterate: the overall strategy for the process of preparing the application to Congress for calling a National Constitutional Convention is to do it in such a way and in such a form as to leave essentially nothing to chance. Therefore, the application to Congress must address ALL of the matters pertaining to the process of calling a National Constitutional Convention; namely, it must specify:
- When and where the National Constitutional Convention should be held;
- How the convention will be managed; in particular:
- That each state will be represented by a delegation of five delegates (plus two or three alternates) chosen by the state’s legislature;
- That there will be one and only one matter up for consideration by the National Constitutional Convention; namely, the proposed Amendment for Reform as provided and presented in the petition for calling the National Constitutional Convention;
- That each delegation will have one vote;
- That in order for the Amendment for Reform to be approved for recommendation to all of the state legislatures for ratification, it must be approved, in accordance with the Constitution, at the National Constitutional Convention by at least 34 of its delegations.
- Once the Amendment for Reform is approved by the National Constitutional Convention the National Constitutional Convention will call upon each of the fifty state legislatures to ratify individually the Amendment for Reform as approved by the National Constitutional Convention.
- When, in accordance with the Constitution, at least three fourths of the fifty state legislatures (38) have ratified the Amendment for Reform as approved by the National Constitutional Convention then the Amendment for Reform will be added to, and become part of, the United States Constitution.
It is important to stress that the Preliminary Convention would be just that: preliminary; it would not be called by Congress; it would explicitly NOT be a Constitutional Convention (national or otherwise); and it would be controlled by an explicitly limited agenda.
As mentioned above, actually it is Congress, nobody else, which has the authority to call the National Constitutional Convention; however, if Congress receives 34 or more identical applications for a National Constitutional Convention from 34 or more State Legislatures and if all of those applications also identically specify the particulars of the National Constitutional Convention, Congress would be very foolish if it went off and called a National Constitutional Convention by some other rogue specification. In particular, the Congressmen and Senators from 34 states would have Hell to pay for deliberately defying their own constituents.
The point of the strategy spelled out here is to use a preliminary convention to take care of all of the nitty-gritty matters pertaining to producing the Amendment for Reform in such a satisfactory form that it will be on a glide path to becoming the next amendment to the Constitution. When the National Constitutional Convention is actually called the matter will have been so thoroughly worked out and rehearsed ahead of time that the actual National Constitutional Convention will essentially be ceremonial, and with any luck at all take less than one hour, after which everyone can have a grand reception of celebration.
