Onward: Stopping the COS/Con-Con and their Lies in 2022
By Christian Gomez, Research Project Manager
In 2021, as of December 13, despite the vigorous efforts of Convention of States Action (COS Action/COS Project), not a single state passed one of their resolutions applying to Congress to call “a Convention for proposing Amendments” to the U.S. Constitution, under Article V, also known as a constitutional convention (Con-Con) or “convention of states.” This success is thanks largely to your efforts in stopping them. And stopping a Con-Con remains one of the most, if not the most, important task for us in 2022 in order to keep our Republic.
Undoubtedly, a modern-day convention, presumably “limited” to just one (i.e., Balanced Budget Amendment, or BBA; Wolf-PAC’s proposed campaign finance reform amendment to overturn Citizens United; congressional term limits; or a few proposed amendments purportedly intended to restrain the federal government, such as by COS Action/COS Project) would open up the Constitution to drastic revision. In 1979, the late Senator Barry Goldwater warned, “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.”
Today’s leading convention proponents — Mark Meckler, Mark Levin, Michael Farris, and leftist Harvard Law Professor Lawrence “Larry” Lessig — however, contend that what they seek is not a “constitutional convention” but a “convention of states,” which they claim to be entirely different from the former. This, ladies and gentleman, is a subterfuge. A subterfuge that is intended to confuse and throw off opponents and garner the support of state legislators who would otherwise immediately reject it as dangerous and reckless, especially now given the current political division and almost universal lack of knowledge about the Constitution and a proper originalist interpretation thereof.
Despite COS Action/COS Project’s intentionally deceptive claims to the contrary, the terms “convention of states” and “constitutional convention” (Con-Con) are synonymous. By constitutional convention The John Birch Society means an Article V convention, or “convention for proposing amendments,” as it is described in Article V of the U.S. Constitution. This is the very same convention which COS has been promoting and calling a “convention of states” since they launched their organizational efforts in 2015.
The John Birch Society is not wrong in calling it a constitutional convention. Black’s Law Dictionary — spanning as far back as its second edition published in 1910 and up to current editions of the dictionary — defines the term “constitutional convention” as “A duly constituted assembly of delegates or representatives of the people of a state or nation for the purpose of framing, revising, or amending its constitution.” Article V of the U.S. Constitution lays out exactly that. A constitutional convention and a convention of states are the same. Any person or organization that says the opposite is either genuinely confused or deliberately misleading others.
When talking and presenting about the dangers of a Con-Con, we must always make this point in order to clear up any confusion authored by Meckler, COS Action, and others.
It is imperative that we continue to educate members, non-members, and state legislators about the following three objectives:
- what is a Con-Con/COS (including the dangers thereof);
- the need to both stop new Con-Con/COS applications from passing and rescindpreviously transmitted or “live” Con-Con applications to Congress; and
- promoting Article VI (not V) of the Constitution to nullify all unconstitutional laws, executive orders, actions, regulations, rules, and mandates from the federal government.
To educate others, watch and utilize our two brand-new webinar presentations titled, “Dangers of a Con-Con” and “Nullification: Military Tactics Applied to Legislative Action.” Both of these are coming soon to “Freedom’s Voices” on JBS.org, so stay tuned.
Also, organize a legislative day to make in-person visits to state legislators, followed by phone calls, especially to those legislators who serve on the key legislative committees responsible for overseeing Article V convention-related resolutions.
For the legislative day, each person should order 1 pack (of 25 qty) of the “Revise or Follow the Con-Con” slim jim, 1 pack (of 25 qty) of the “REIN IN Big Government with Article VI, Not V” slim jim, and 25 copies of the “Save the Constitution” reprint. Distribute these to legislators and their staff members. These pieces of literature succinctly explain the problem and provide real solutions, which legislators are most interested in. No legislator should want to help (including unintendedly) facilitate the loss of our Constitution. And every legislator should want to be part of the solution to stop the federal leviathan from destroying their state. Hence, recission and nullification. Rescind all previously transmitted Con-Con applications to Congress and nullify all unconstitutional laws, edicts, orders, mandates, etc. from the federal government.
If you see or discover that Mark Meckler is visiting your state legislature, be sure to schedule your legislative day at least one or two days before he arrives in order to convince legislators to oppose the COS application in advance.
Finally, emails come last in importance, but don’t neglect them as they are the easiest action that every member can and should be doing. Visit JBS.org and click on “Act Now” for our state legislative action alerts.
If you live in Georgia, Senate Resolution 29, a BBA Con-Con application, passed in the Georgia Senate by a vote of 34 Yeas to 20 Nays on February 22, 2021 and is still active in the 2022 legislative session for potential final passage in the Georgia House of Representatives. If passed, SR 29 would not only add to the total number of states with live applications for a BBA Con-Con (currently 26 states; eight states short of the required 2/3rds, or 34 out of 50 states, required for Congress to call a convention). It also claims that its application should be aggregated with the BBA Con-Con applications of other states plus, sneakily included, the Con-Con applications from states that never applied for a BBA Con-Con!
We exposed this plot back in the September 6, 2021 issue of The New American magazine, in the article titled “Aggressive New Scheme Exposes Article V Convention Lobby.” Read this article to refresh yourself with the details. Purchase 10 to 15 copies of this issue, available on ShopJBS.org. You may want to put a sticky tab on page 17, where the article begins. Distribute the issues to your state representative and their staff members. Most importantly, tell them to oppose SR 29. Leave them with copies of the magazine in order to read the article for more information.
After you have handed out copies to your representative and his or her staff members, do so with the representatives (and their staff) who serve on the House Rules Committee, which is where the resolution is pending. This should be done on your scheduled legislative day.
If you live in New York, work to rescind the state’s application for a general convention from 1789. If you live in either Kentucky or Illinois, work to rescind those states’ convention applications from 1861 intended to prevent the Civil War. If you live in Oregon or Washington state, work to rescind the states’ convention applications from 1901. In a desperate dash to force Congress to call a convention soon, Con-Con advocates desire to aggregate the aforementioned non-BBA convention applications with those specifically for a BBA Con-Con. It is imperative that these states, which are unlikely to pass a BBA Con-Con application, rescind all of their previously-transmitted applications for an Article V convention regardless of the topic or intention.
If you live in one of the 26 states with outstanding applications for a BBA Con-Con (see our “BBA Con-Con Status Map” on JBS.org), contact your state legislators and urge them to rescind their state’s previously passed BBA Con-Con application. To help accomplish this, click on “State Alerts,” under the “ACT NOW” tab on JBS.org and click on your state. Select and fill out the legislative alert titled, “Tell Your Legislators to Rescind Applications.”