thankGod wrote:I read the article that was posted, and I don't understand what the Constitutional Convention is for.
Article V, United States Constitution:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
A Constitutional Convention is what you do when you need to amend the Constitution without the cooperation of Congress. Essentially, it's an opportunity for the states to temporarily take control of the Amendment process in place of the Congress. Fortunately, though two thirds (34) of states can call for it, the revision and/or Amendments would require ratification by three fourths (38) of the states, and that's after they know what it will be.
Since several of the states which have called for the Convention have expressed a desire to rescind their votes, getting them to vote in favor of any revision presented would require that any such changes be extremely well received. It is interesting to note the timeline of the 27th Amendment, though, as an example of what can happen if no time limit is set for ratification; it was one of the original twelve Amendments posed for the Bill Of Rights, yet took 203 years to pass as the votes in favor built up. (Though notably with gaps of 105 and 82 years when nothing happened.) Since this Convention is being called by essentially the same "wait for favorable votes and refuse to allow them to be rescinded" tactic, it's possible they could eventually pass nearly anything.
For more details, see
http://www.usconstitution.net/constam.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;