At Volokh Conspiracy, Randy Barnett: Why don’t we restore the Constitution so every election is not “make or break”? Fro mthe introduction:
Why does this and every election in recent years seem like a “make or break” election? One reason is that we have abandoned so many of the constraints imposed by the Constitution on our government that everything now rides on who holds office. No longer can we be confident that, when the government is controlled by the party we oppose, what it can do while in power will be limited by constitutional–rather than purely electoral–constraints. This was not the way it was supposed to be in a constitutional republic, and is not the way it needs to be in the future. The founders gave us a constitutional means to restore the constraints that the Constitution imposes on the national government: an Article V convention of the state. And we need not wait to hold one. We could restore constitutional government in just a year or two.
So what’s stopping us? For some, if not many, the fear is that such a convention would be dangerous and damaging. … In an effort to address these concerns, last week, Citizens for Self-Government held an ambitious simulated Article V Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia, for which I served as a legal advisor. …
With video, plus a link to this article by Rob Natelson, another legal advisor to the project: What Would an Article V Convention of States Actually Be Like? (with a report on what amendments the Convention proposed).
Posted at 6:05 AM