Proposed Second Constitutional Convention Body and
Process
This document proposes a framework for the participation,
management and selection of convention participants and process to be used for
the Second Constitutional Convention (hereafter described as Convention II) as
well as provides a brief background of the participant make up of the original
Constitutional Convention.
Background:
The original Constitutional Convention was comprised of 55
members representing 12 of the original 13 states (Rhode Island sent no
delegates), with 39 of those 55 members eventually signing the finished
document. The assembled Constitutional
Convention delegates selected George Washington to be the chairman of the
convention deliberations.
Convention II Number
of Participants and General Structure:
Using the wisdom of the Founding Fathers as a guide, the
Convention II participation (hereafter “delegates”) should be based on the
number of each state’s congressional membership, which is the basis for the
distribution of Electoral College votes among the states. A direct application of this approach would
result in a Convention II body of 535 members which, in all likelihood would
result in an unwieldy body, too large to manage and have useful debate. A more pragmatic approach would be that each
state’s Convention II membership would be one half of its congressional
membership, always rounding up to the next whole person. This approach would result in a Convention II
body of approximately 270 individuals which should be large enough to be comprehensive
and small enough to be effective
The Convention II structure needs to be some sort of two
tiered process similar to the Senate / House of Representative structure of our
congress to prevent large population center states from dictating the outcome
of the Convention II through shear numeric superiority of delegates. The Founders wisely adopted the Virginia
Compromise that ensured the right of large population states could be asserted
through the House of Representatives while protecting the equality of the
smaller population states through equal voting power provided by the
Senate. This structure is critical to
the success of Convention II since anything based solely on population
proportion will result in a form of tyranny of the majority
Convention II
Delegate Selection:
Article V of the United States Constitution provides no
details regarding who the delegates can or should be, stating only that the
Congress shall call a convention by “the
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states.” However, since a Constitutional Convention,
is implied in Federalist 85 to be a
means to check federal power, the Convention II delegates should be selected by
the state legislators.
Convention II Delegate
Qualification:
The participants in the First Constitutional Convention were
generally leaders of their day recognized for their judgment, personal
integrity, education and commitment to the cause of establishing a more
effective United States government.
Convention II delegates must have these same standards but must also
have a deep knowledge of our Constitution and the philosophy behind the
Founder’s intent before they can hope to make positive change versus inflicting
unintentional harm. Simply stated, a
person must thoroughly understand a process before they can hope to improve it.
That said, delegates must be formally educated and tested on all of the
founding and related documents including the Articles of Confederation, the
U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers and the Ant-Federalist Papers. Delegate selection should not be limited to
those already holding elective office nor based on political party affiliation,
but rather should be based on the above criteria.
Convention II
Management:
The Convention II should be managed by a Convention
Chairperson who would be responsible to open and adjourn all Convention II
sessions, ensure agreed Convention II processes are followed, to tally any
votes, and ensure the Convention II proceedings are properly recorded. The Convention II Chairperson would have no
voting authority, and would not participate in the deliberations, but would
ensure that agreed Convention II processes are followed and would propose new
processes to make the Convention II proceedings more efficient and effective. All proposals offered by the Convention II
Chairperson would be subject to the approval of the full Convention II body.
Since the Convention II Chairperson will have no voting
authority, and be primarily charged with managing the administrative processes
of the convention, it may be prudent to have a former Speaker of the House,
former Senate President Pro Tempore, lieutenant state governor or former Vice
President as the Convention II Chairperson since these roles have experience in
managing large legislative bodies.
Convention II Chairperson
Selection:
The Convention II Chairperson should be selected by majority
vote of the Convention II delegates in advance of the first actual Convention
II session through a pre-convention Administrative Session described more
thoroughly below.
Convention II
Process:
The administrative rules of Convention II and the Convention
II Chairperson selection should be developed and completed through a
pre-convention Administrative Session.
This Administrative Session should have the full participation of all
selected Convention II delegates and be lead by the current United States
Senate President Pro Tempore or Speaker of the House. The role of the Senate President Pro Tempore
or Speaker of the House will be a non-voting role limited solely to managing
the deliberations of the full Administrative Session body to: 1) Select a
Convention II Chairperson and two alternates; 2) Agree on a date and location
where the Convention II will begin.
The Administrative Session should be complete and adjourned
six months in advance of the actual Convention II to allow the Convention II
Chairperson to consider, accept and prepare for the Convention II work as well
as allow time for Convention II delegates to gather input from their
constituents regarding issues to be considered by the full Convention II body.
Powers and Limitations on Delegates to the Constitutional
Convention
States have the power to limit the authority of the
delegates they send to a constitutional convention since Article V does not
preclude establishing limitations and it is clear that powers not otherwise
delegated nor prohibited by the Constitution remain with the states. That said, limiting delegate authority can be
a double edge sword, preventing some form of a “run away” convention on one
hand while potentially restricting delegate action so severely as to make the
convention a useless exercise.
Restrictions should be considered to protect the core
foundation principles of the Constitution but little else since the differing
restrictions of 50 distinct convention delegations could effectively stop the
process before it ever begins. Consider
for example that 10 states allow their delegates to consider only the repeal of
the 17th Amendment, and 10 more allow the consideration of only a
balanced budget amendment and 5 others allow only a discussion on unfunded
mandates. Authorizing delegates to
participate and vote only on a narrow band of topics at best precludes that
state from influencing the discussion and at worst makes the entire convention
process fail at the outset.
Restrictions to protect core foundation principles on the
other hand can provide the desired level of safety while not unduly restricting
the effectiveness of the convention process.
Arguably the core principles of the Constitution that should be beyond
the reach of a conventions are:
- The Separation
of Powers between the three
branches of the federal government
- The scope
of power defined for each of the three branches
- The
principle of a limited federal government with specific enumerated powers
with all others remaining with the States and the People respectively
In addition to preserving these core principles, there are
two other general restrictions that should be established for a Constitutional
Convention:
- Article V is recognized as
a limited to the process of amending the Constitution, and therefore
cannot be used to rescind, replace or re-write the Constitution.
- The Bill of Rights cannot
be altered or amended unless said amendments expand the rights and freedoms
of individual citizens
This level of restrictions ensures that the balance of
powers between the branches of the federal government remain intact, that the
power of the states are not further eroded and that the personal rights and
liberties of American citizens are preserved while unleashing the power of the
convention to consider the full spectrum of ideas that could strengthen the
republic with the safety valve that poorly considered ideas will not survive
the three quarters ratification requirements.
