Last session, my good friend Sen. Steve Halloran introduced the Convention of States resolution as he has done in every legislature since we began our term in office in 2017. Once passed, this will be Nebraska’s “application” to the United States Congress asking that a convention of states for the purpose of proposing amendments to the federal constitution be called. I strongly support this legislation, and I will always co-sponsor it.

It will be before the Legislature again next session. I urge supporters to contact their state senator and urge them to vote for it.  

Two-thirds of the states — thirty-four — have to make application for this convention to happen. Fifteen states have done this so far. Twenty-two additional states have passed the measure in one chamber of their legislature. Convention of States legislation has been introduced in forty-seven states.

The framers of the Constitution put two methods to propose amendments to the Constitution in Article V. Our country has used the first method — two-thirds of Congress  — thirty-three times to ultimately create twenty-seven amendments to the constitution. The process clearly works. The second method in Article V is where two-thirds of the states have a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. Once the required supermajority of states have made application, Congress calls the convention (names the time and place). All states may send a delegation whether they applied for the convention or not. 

Amendments to the Constitution are proposed at the convention. Each state has one vote. Amendments voted out of the convention are sent to congress to select a mode of ratification, and then they are sent to all fifty states for ratification. 

Regardless of whether congress proposes the amendment, or the states do, it must be ratified by three-quarters (thirty-eight) of the states. That amounts to about seventy-six houses of state government just like our legislature. A majority of each have to vote to ratify an amendment. This works out to be about 2,500 state legislators (senators and representatives) who would all have to vote “yes” to ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The framers of the Constitution required thirty-eight state legislatures to all agree on the same thing before it could become part of the constitution. They wanted there to be a way to change the Constitution, but they wanted to ensure the process was protected from frivolous political mischief. This extraordinarily powerful safeguard the framers put in the constitution protects us from that and has worked brilliantly the past two hundred thirty two years of our country’s history. 

It is clear to me the federal government has become unmoored from the Constitution. Their pronouncements and directives grow more oppressive by the day. The states created the federal government. I believe the states need to use the constitution they wrote, and restore the federal creature they conceived to its limited constitutional role before it does more harm to the country. This is the context and principal reason the convention of states mode of proposing amendments was written into Article V.