INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A small but determined group of state
lawmakers from some 30 states gathered in Indiana Thursday to lay the
groundwork for something that has not happened since 1787 in
Philadelphia: a convention to revise the U.S. Constitution.
The
bar they would have to clear — winning approval from 34 state
legislatures — seems impossibly high, but the group of roughly 100
legislators, most of them Republicans, is pressing on.
Fueling
them is a firm belief that the federal government is increasingly
overstepping its bounds and has forgotten that it was the states which
gave it life at the birth of the United States, not the other way
around.
"We’re trying to save the Constitution and the powers that
are inherent there, the powers in the 10th, 9th (amendments) where the
power is reserved to the states and to the people," said Rep. Jordan
Ulery, a New Hampshire Republican.
"A lot of people don’t
understand what that convention is, and as part of a convention of the
states, we’re going to have to teach our own states," he said.
The
9th and 10th Amendments say that the government cannot encroach on
personal rights not already written in the Constitution and that federal
powers not written in the Constitution are reserved for the states and
the people.
Indiana’s Republican Senate President Pro Tem David
Long, a leader of the effort, has cited the expansion of the federal
debt and President Barack Obama’s health care law as examples of the
national government overreaching.
The meetings, dubbed the Mount
Vernon Assembly, opened Thursday in the House chamber of the Indiana
Capitol in Indianapolis and continue Friday. They follow sessions last
December at George Washington’s home in Virginia.
Actually calling
a convention that would allow for the amending of the Constitution
needs the consent of 34 of the 50 states, or a two-thirds majority.
While conservatives might press a new convention to bolster the power of
states, it also might open the way for a host of other issues to be
raised.
Most of the delegates to this week’s sessions are
Republicans who want to bypass Congress because they do not believe the
document can be changed through the federal government.
The
Indiana meeting — catered and in air conditioned rooms — was a far cry
from the convention held 227 years ago, during a sweltering stretch in
Philadelphia, with some delegates arriving by horseback rather than
airplane and automobile today.
The Constitution has been amended
17 times since it was ratified. The most recent approved in 1992,
established that changes in Congressional pay will not take effect until
after the subsequent elections.
Organizers said lawmakers from 33
states were invited and about 30 attended, focusing Thursday on rules
and regulations for a future constitutional conference. Unlike the
Philadelphia conference of all white men, this group included a few
black and women lawmakers.
"Our task is to lay the foundation of
this building as solidly as we can, so that it can stand tall for future
generations," Long said referring to the Constitution. "So it can
provide a shelter necessary to protect those who use this building for
the advancement of state’s rights, whether today, tomorrow, or at any
time in the future."
But the hurdles — political and practical —
to actually calling a convention were clear Thursday. In some cases the
lawmakers from their respective states had come of their own accord, and
were not appointed as a formal representative of their state
legislature.
The group plans to meet again in December. Ohio
Speaker Pro Tem Matt Huffman, who presided over Thursday’s meeting, said
the group will likely work on the issue for many years.