NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Heartland Institute scholar assesses current state of ‘Article V’ movement to amend U.S. Constitution
Policy brief refutes fears of a ‘Runaway Convention,’ lays out strategy to unite factions
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL – The Heartland Institute this week published a new Policy Brief that looks at the current state of the “Article V” movement – a growing movement and sometimes contentious debate among conservatives and libertarians about how to rein in a federal government that is larger, more expensive, and more intrusive than anything the framers of the U.S. Constitution could have imagined.
Titled The Article V Movement: A Comprehensive Assessment to Date and Suggested Approach for State Legislators and Advocacy Groups Moving Forward. this 40-page Policy Brief outlines how far the movement has come in the past several years and where it should go in the near future. The author, David F. Guldenschuh, is an attorney who has been intimately involved in the Article V movement for several years. He’s a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute’s Center for Constitutional Reform, launched earlier in 2015 to support all efforts to restore constitutional order in the United States.
“The desire for power and the influence of special-interest money has so utterly corrupted Washington, DC that citizens no longer feel their leaders and representatives are looking out for the nation’s best interests,” Guldenschuh writes in the Policy Brief.
Fortunately, Guldenschuh adds, the nation’s Founders recognized the national government might some day overreach its authority. That is why they included in the U.S. Constitution Article V, which provides a mechanism for states to propose constitutional amendments to rein in the national government.
Guldenschuh describes four Article V advocacy groups – the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force, Convention of States Project, Wolf-PAC, and Compact for America – and reports on educational efforts undertaken by those organizations and others. He especially refutes fears of a “run-away convention.” And he concludes by proposing a strategy for the movement going forward, noting:
“The Article V movement has the resources, the grassroots support, and the ability to [rein in the national government]. The question is, can leaders within the movement coordinate their efforts and cooperate with each other to accomplish this mighty goal, or will the movement devolve into a circular firing squad as unfortunately happens all too often among conservative groups? Time will tell, if it doesn’t first run out on us all.”
