| Thank you for hanging in there with us and responding to the blasts. This will be our 9th year following legislation bankrolled by those who have proved they’ll do just about anything to get their hands on our Constitution.
Get ready to be bombarded, as State Legislatures have already started to roll out. On the positive side, 2024 is an election year, and legislators should be anxious to get back home to raise money and campaign.
During 2023, we followed 127 Article V Convention bills in 44 States—mostly Applications—but also Rescission, Rules changes, Repeal of sunsets, and Delegate bills. And we issued 105 alerts for 18 States where we felt citizen action was necessary.
Only two Article V Convention applications passed: in Oklahoma (Term Limits) and in California (Gun Control). Oklahoma’s wasn’t important, as it was already being counted toward the requisite 34 states, having passed the BBA and COS applications in prior years. California’s application appears to have been a ploy to get attention by California Gov. Newsom who claimed he wasn’t seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. We should know soon enough if any Democrat states follow suit.
Convention of States (COS) applications are the most important to defeat because of COS’s penchant for buying hype and hoopla to feign a groundswell of public support. Fortunately, our side was able to stop COS in all 26 states they attempted in 2023. A couple of those applications may come to life again in 2024. We must be vigilant.
In Kansas, COS got a majority floor vote on both its House and Senate applications. But they failed to get the 2/3 majority required by the Kansas Constitution. Pro-convention legislators were so accommodating as to change their rules to make it easier for Meckler to win in federal court should he follow through with his vow to sue Kansas for complying with their own Constitution.
But Meckler never went to court, possibly because a federal court opinion in Meckler’s favor and against the Kansas Constitution, might highlight the fact that State Legislatures can’t control an Art. V convention! Months after they lost Kansas, COS Leadership simply boosted their state count from 19 to 20. Few noticed.
In that vein, CON Lobby counterparts in DC declared victory in 2022. They announced that the 34-state threshold had been crossed by Nevada’s passing an application for a BBA in…(drum roll)…1979! No matter that Nevada’s BBA had been rescinded 5 years before the announcement! Incredibly, the CON lobby found a congressman to introduce legislation to that effect with a straight face. H.CON.RES. 24 (2023) is a congressional call for a convention under article V which validates all state applications passed since 1788, regardless of subject, obsolescence, age, constitutionality, having since been rescinded, etc—as long as 2/3 of the states ever had a non-rescinded application on record at the same time. If H.CON.RES 24 passes, the Con lobby will get the unlimited convention it’s been salivating over for the past decade.
In June, we celebrated the success of our liberal friends’ rescission of all previously-passed A5C applications in Oregon. That makes 12 States to date with no active applications. Assuming we can defeat H.CON.RES. 24 and rescind in 5 more states, there won’t be 34 states left for Congress to count!
Thank you again for your activism in defending our Constitution. Without your part in helping to fight, the CON Lobby might have feigned enough momentum by now to steal our Constitution. It’s amazing that truth and logic have thus far held their own against unlimited dark money and the forces of evil. You have made a difference. |