Dear Editor,

The late, great Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said an Article V Constitutional Convention of States “is a horrible idea” because, as he had previously said, “Who knows what would come out of that?”  www.thenewamerican.com/justice-scalia-s-warning-of-a-constitutional-convention/

As far back as 1979, Senator Barry Goldwater warned against an Article V Convention as follows:

“If we hold a constitutional convention, every group in the country — majority, minority, middle-of-the-road, left, right, up, down — is going to get its two bits in and we are going to wind up with a constitution that will be so far different from the one we have lived under for 200 years that I doubt that the Republic could continue.”

Last year, even Glenn Beck finally realized that Senator Goldwater, Justice Scalia, and most other constitutional conservatives are correct, so he no longer supports a Constitutional “Convention of States” because Beck now understands the dangers.

Justice Scalia said “who knows what would come out of that” for the following reasons:

The Article V convention method has never been used;

The States ONLY power is to apply, because the Constitution then says “Congress…shall call a convention for proposing amendments,” and Congress would set up the convention, organize it, and set up the rules, including how delegates are selected (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18; Article V, and Federalist Paper 85 by Alexander Hamilton;

There is no way a “Convention of States” called and set up by Congress can be limited by the States to one amendment only; We cannot trust Congress, now or in the near future, to follow the Constitution, so we cannot trust Congress to organize a constitutional convention to “improve” the Constitution;

We cannot trust a majority of delegates sent to Congress from the States today to follow the Constitution, so we cannot trust delegates sent from the States to a constitutional convention to follow the Constitution.

For exposure of some of the falsehoods by those promoting a constitutional convention (recently on FOX news for example), please listen/watch the interview at www.thenewamerican.com/debunking-mark-mecklers-false-claims-on-tucker-carlson-today/.

As Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky) says:  “If my colleagues won’t follow the present constitution, why would they follow a new one?….The document our founders gave us was genius, and we tamper with it at our own peril.”

The solution is to enforce the Constitution, not change it! If enough people in a State understand the Constitution, then that State can nullify unconstitutional laws within the State, just as explained by Thomas Jefferson and done by various States throughout U.S. history, including today.

Three Resolutions introduced in our Oklahoma Legislature calling for an Article V constitutional convention (Con-Con) or “convention of the states” must be stopped.

Senate Joint Resolution 14 (SJR 14) and House Joint Resolution 1032 (HJR 1032) apply to Congress to call a convention to set terms limits on the U.S. House and Senate.  Not only are terms limits bad for the reasons explained at our constitutional convention in 1787 and in Federalist Papers 53 and 72 (www.thenewamerican.com/term-limits-a-restraint-on-liberty-not-on-corruption/), but regardless of the proposed amendment issue, the “convention of states” (Con-Con) is very dangerous for all the above reasons.

House Joint Resolution 1017 (HJR 1017) calls for Oklahoma to send delegates to a “gathering of states” to create guidelines for an Article V Convention, thereby “creating a false sense of security against a runaway convention, thus making state legislators less concerned about opening the Pandora’s Box,” which dangers cannot be controlled by states since only Congress has the authority to set up the rules for an Article V convention.

Please go to www.jbs.org/alert/oppose-oklahoma-con-con-resolutions/ and click on the green bar “TAKE ACTION NOW” which will find your Oklahoma Representative and Senator, and you can send a pre-written letter (make changes if you want to), call your officials, and/or send video messages.

The dangers are real but can be stopped if enough Oklahomans contact our elected officials.

With love and thanks,

Brad Baker,

Sperry, OK