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The Dangerous Push for an Article V Convention [1]

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Date: 2025-01-16

A powerful coalition of wealthy donors, corporations, and far-right activists is pushing for an Article V Convention to radically rewrite the U.S. Constitution. The movement is gaining significant traction, with just six more states needed to trigger the process. But the stakes are incredibly high—an Article V Convention could lead to a complete overhaul of the Constitution and permanently alter America’s democratic structure.

What is an Article V Convention?

Article V of the U.S. Constitution lays out the process for amending the Constitution. If two-thirds of state legislatures (34 states) apply for a convention, Congress is required to convene one to propose amendments. But here’s the catch: there are no rules or limitations for what could happen once the convention is called. This means that a group of unelected delegates could rewrite the Constitution in any way they choose, with no accountability to the public.

An Article V Convention could open the door to amendments that would:

Strip away fundamental rights like freedom of speech, religious freedom, and the right to privacy.

like freedom of speech, religious freedom, and the right to privacy. Eliminate environmental protections and undermine civil rights laws.

and undermine civil rights laws. Make it harder for future generations to amend the Constitution, locking in far-right agendas and policies that benefit the wealthy and corporations.

With no safeguards, this process could spark legal battles, destabilize democratic institutions, and shift the nation’s legal framework in unpredictable and potentially dangerous ways. As the push for a convention grows stronger, the risk of a runaway convention—where anything and everything is up for grabs—becomes more real.

The Forces Behind the Push: ALEC and Project 2025

At the forefront of this effort is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a powerful conservative organization that has long advocated for reducing government regulation and curbing civil rights protections. Alongside ALEC is the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, an effort driven by far-right factions aiming to reshape American governance.

ALEC and its allies are advancing a constitutional convention as a way to enact their radical agenda. According to a recent New York Times report, Republicans would likely control 29 out of 50 state delegations to a convention, with another two potentially split. This dominance would allow them to pass amendments largely without any meaningful opposition from Democrats or independents.

The proposed amendments being discussed in mock conventions, such as the Convention of States (COS) event in Colonial Williamsburg in August 2023, reveal the scope of this radical agenda. Some of the key proposals include:

Federal Land Transfers : Allowing state legislatures to decide whether the federal government can retain public lands, including wildlife habitats, shifting control to extractive industries.

Civil Rights : A proposal to limit Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce, potentially invalidating key civil rights protections like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 .

Environmental Protections : Stripping federal environmental protections, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act , by limiting Congress's ability to regulate environmental issues.

Judicial and Fiscal Power: Proposals to lock the Supreme Court at nine justices and prevent future expansion, along with fiscal measures that would allow presidents to unilaterally cut spending or enact tax policies that benefit the wealthy.

These proposals reflect the Project 2025 vision, which seeks to severely restrict the federal government’s role in regulating business, protecting the environment, and ensuring civil rights.

The Strategy to Call an Article V Convention

While ALEC and its allies are still far from meeting the two-thirds state threshold required to call a convention, their strategy is gaining momentum. They are exploring unconventional legal theories to count outdated or irrelevant applications from states, which could bring them closer to the 34-state threshold. A recent article in the ABA Journal suggests that this may already have happened.

Now that Republicans have gained control of both the U.S. House and Senate, the prospect of calling a convention becomes more likely. Strangely enough, an Article V Convention can’t be vetoed by the President, meaning that even tRump couldn’t stop it if the true powers (oligarchs, corporations, Christian Nationalists) wanted it. This is especially appealing now that Republicans continue to face challenges in passing their proposals through Congress because of their razor-thin margin.

State-Level Resistance: The Key to Stopping a Runaway Convention

To prevent this dangerous shift, state-level resistance is crucial. States like California are already racing to rescind their previous calls for a constitutional convention, fearing that even a narrowly focused convention—such as one aimed at a balanced budget amendment—could quickly spiral out of control. Once the convention is called, there would be no way to limit its scope. Democrats and progressives must work to block enough states from applying for a convention to ensure that the process never moves forward.

This issue is not just about blocking a handful of extreme amendments; it’s about protecting the very structure of American democracy. The risk of a "runaway convention"—where anything from corporate deregulation to drastic cuts to civil rights protections could be on the table—is very real.

The Historical Context: A Dangerous Precedent

The fear of a runaway convention is not without historical precedent. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was initially convened for the express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. Instead, the delegates created an entirely new framework of government—the U.S. Constitution—which abolished the Articles and fundamentally changed the country’s political structure. This shows that a convention could easily spiral beyond its initial mandate, leading to unforeseen and potentially irreversible changes.

Since then, the constitutional amendment process has largely been handled by Congress. While the process for calling a convention remains a possibility, it has never been used in modern times, largely due to the difficulty in getting two-thirds of states to agree on such a radical move. However, with the current political climate, this threshold is now within reach, and the consequences of such a move could be dire.

Conclusion: A Call for Action

The push for an Article V Convention is not a distant hypothetical; it is a real and growing threat to the integrity of the U.S. Constitution. If successful, it could reshape the nation’s laws in ways that benefit the wealthy and powerful while stripping away essential protections for ordinary citizens. The battle to stop this dangerous movement is far from over, and the only way to prevent it is through coordinated action at the state level.

Once again, were this to be a true agenda item, one of the two ways to stop it would be for blue states to immediately rescind their old calls for a constitutional convention. The other, more dangerous way, would be to fight the radical right in the convention, where their voices would be severely outnumbered.

****** UPDATE ******

In the comments, there has been a lot of healthy pushback. In defense of the journal, I’d like to add a summary.

It is a FACT that the Convention of States (COS) has met at least twice and conducted ‘mock’ conventions. It is a FACT that, at the last of these meetings last August, 49 of the represented states (almost all Republicans, even for those states with a Democratic majority in one or both houses) voted for six constitutional amendments that, in a real convention, they would introduce and fight for. It is a FACT that the 34 State threshold may have already been reached, albeit through questionable but possibly legal machinations.

No where in this journal am I saying that this will happen, only that there are people and organizations in the radical right who are actively pursuing this process. I absolutely agree with some of the commenters that, even if such a convention were to occur, that there are still enough good Democrats and possibly even a few patriotic Republicans (I know.. I know… a stretch) to stop any of these amendments from becoming a part of the Constitution. However, with the Christian Nationalist movement legitimately feeling empowered, the unprecedented butt-kissing of purple state democrats, and the massive amounts of intrusion, both financial and social, of the new oligarchs, suggest that, at the very least, we all be aware of the possibility and not be blindsided.

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