Warren Burger as Exhibit "A"? Really??

Many years ago, when I first started working as the South Carolina State Director for the Convention of States Project effort, I debated with the SC Field Representative for the John Birch Society on the merits of an Article V Convention of States and the COS Project. One of the pieces of "evidence" used by the JBS to argue against an Article V COS is a letter written in 1988 by former United States Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger. In the debate, each of us had 20 minutes to present our side. When the JBS rep had his turn I was astounded that he chose to use this letter as part of his argument. You see, Chief Justice Warren Burger was the Chief Justice that presided over the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that struck down every law in the nation that protected unborn children. This is the decision that our federal government handed down that has sanctioned the butchering of 60 million unborn children to date. Burger was one of the chief architects of the decision where our government made war against the unborn lawful in our nation. Our federal judiciary, with Chief Justice Warren Burger at the helm sanctioned a holocaust on unborn children. It would be one thing if the JBS field rep didn’t know this…that would be bad enough, but friends….we have been beating them up about this since they began to use it in their opposition to us over 6 months ago. The JBS touts itself as THE protector of the Constitution.

During one of the questions that we fielded after our 20 minute statements, I turned to the audience and asked if anyone could tell me what the most egregious court decision has been in the history of our nation. Almost unanimously they responded with “Roe v Wade”. I then asked them if they knew who wrote and approved of that decision...they didn't...so I informed them that Warren Burger was the Chief Justice that was part of the majority decision that found the right for women to chop up their unborn children in what the court called the “penumbras” or shadows of the Constitution. It was the most radical departure from Originalism in the history of the Supreme Court. So the John Birch Society holds up Warren Burger, one of the most radical, left wing SCOTUS Justices in our nation’s history that twisted and perverted the Constitution in order to arrive at the most abominable decision a court could make under our Constitution. A Constitution designed to protect and implement the principles of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness found in the Declaration of Independence. You could have heard a pin drop, when I dropped that bomb.

Now, it would be one thing if my JBS debate “opponent” had just heard this information for the first time, but he knows it….he has heard us explain this before. One has to wonder why the JBS (an organization that claims to be devoted to protecting the original intent of the Constitution) would continue to use one of the most activist, liberal, far left, statist Justices (who continually showed his contempt for the Rule of Law and Originalism in his decisions) to make their point. Thinking people would ask why a Judge, whose normal mode of operation was to subvert the Rule of Law and pervert the Constitution...thinking people would ask why would he NOT oppose the use of Article V by the states since it's very use would potentially strip him of his power to pervert our Rule of Law?

Someone needs to ask the John Birch Society, all those that support them, and this particular JBS representative, why they continue to hold up this pathetic, radical, leftist Chief Justice that gave us the most abominable decision in our nation’s history as their poster child.

Smoke and Mirrors

This is one of those "please permit me to provide some Constitutional training" afternoons. I'm going to tick some of my Republican friends off with this....but that's ok, swallowing illogical garbage just because I vote Republican is not something I can and will ever do. So, here we go....

The Republican controlled House of Representatives passed a bill this week called the "Enforce The Law Act".... I am told by other "astute" republicans that they needed to do this because they will never be able to impeach the President.

So, let's follow the logic...there is so much here to either laugh or cry at, I don't know where to begin.

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives sole power to indict, or bring charges against any federal official for "high crimes and misdemeanors". With the term "misdemeanors" used in the Constitution, the threshold for "indictments" is pretty low. These indictments are called "Articles of Impeachment".

In the current administration, from the President on down, this is what one might call a "target rich" environment when it comes to indictable offenses. Indeed, the name of the law passed out of the House of Representatives this week clearly indicates that the Republicans in the House know that the President is not enforcing the law. Article II, Section 3 states the following "...he [The President] shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed..." Wa la, there you have it...not a misdemeanor by any stretch....but rather a high crime being committed right in front of their (and our) eyes by the President of the United States. This fact is not in dispute, the House passed a bill because of this fact.

Yet, we are told by the members of the House of Representatives, and I'm hearing from the Republican Party faithful, that "meh, we cannot impeach, the Senate will not convict"

Friends, you have heard me say this before, that is a lame excuse since it is not the job of the House or for that matter you or me to determine whether or not there is an environment in the U.S. Senate to convict. If there are impeachable offenses, the House members, that swore to uphold and defend the Constitution mind you, are DUTY BOUND to bring indictments called Articles of Impeachment. The process cannot begin in the Senate until the Republican House members put on their big boy pants, step up to the plate, and do their Constitutional duty. If the House of Representatives brings Articles of Impeachment, the Senate MUST conduct a trial. Even though we know the Democrat controlled Senate would likely never convict the President, the media would be forced to cover it and this President would go down in history as being only the third President to be impeached. Remember, impeachment does not mean removal. Under our Constitution, the House of Representatives Impeaches, and the Senate conducts a trail for removal.

So let me close this by bringing you back to the crazy logic and inanity of a bill (proposed future law) called the "Enforce The Law Act". The proponents of this bill say they need to do this because the Senate will not convict if the House impeaches the President.

Friends, I'm not the brightest light bulb in the house....but (1) can anyone tell me what the chances are of the United States Senate (with a majority of Democrats led by Harry Reid) voting to pass this bill? (2) Can anyone tell me what the chances are of Harry Reid even permitting a vote on this bill from the House? (3) Can anyone tell me what the chances are of the President of the United States signing a bill into law that is designed to drag him into court for not enforcing the law?

But mind you, we are all supposed to clap and put meme's on our facebook page showing that the Republicans passed a bill called the "Enforce The Law Act" out of the United States House of Representatives this week. And we are also supposed to face the "reality" that impeachment is a waste of time because the "Senate will not convict the President".

Folks, is it just me? Am I the one in Bizarro World? Or is it the folks that think the Republicans did something worthy of a ticker tape parade this week? You tell me.

Friends, this is the kind of stuff that tells you that the three branches of government are literally in collusion today. Washington D.C. (and a lot of others outside) are living in a dream world. There is virtually no chance left that Washington D.C. will do anything meaningful to roll back its power usurpation or roll back the size of the federal government. We are witnessing the EXACT events play out that the founders knew could occur in government...and they gave us, the people in the states a mechanism, a way back to the limited government they gave us in 1787. It's called the Article V Convention of States. Today, there is only one organization that has put together a viable plan for a grassroots effort to get our states to do this, that organization is called the Convention of States Project.

 

The Erosion of "Free Exercise"

The fact that so few Christians today understand the gravity of what is going on with the erosion of the First Amendments Free Exercise clause is staggering.

Under the Constitutional right of Free Exercise of Religion, believers in our nation have specific Constitutional protection to the free exercise of their religion according to the dictates of their own consciences...that means they should not ever be forced to violate their own beliefs unless those beliefs lead to actions that do physical harm to another. I hear some believers saying that they agree with not having to perform weddings for homosexuals. But they disagree with denying services in other areas. If a Christian, has convictions about not providing his/her service to homosexuals because they feel they may be sanctioning that activity by providing their skills...that is there call. Our government, federal or state is not supposed to be permitted to force them to violate their conscience. Some agree that Christians shouldn't have to do it for the weddings, but then imply that we shouldn't be able to deny some other service. The problem with that kind of reasoning is that it makes you, I, or worse, the government the arbiter of another Christians conscience...rather than the Holy Spirit working in that individuals life. They may be convicted not to provide their skills or services because they are sanctioning that activity by doing so. Its not your call, my call, or the governments call, it should never be your or my call when it comes to a persons convictions unless those convictions obviously do physical harm to another.

This is so VERY crucial for Christians to understand...I simply cannot over emphasize this....we are sitting idly by (the Church) and watching specific rights given to us by God in our nation, for the express purpose of the free gospel dispensation...which includes believers taking a stand against what they believe is sin. No other nation has this kind of protection codified in it's Constitution or laws. Once again, our ignorance of the Constitution and the protections it affords us all, once again, that ignorance is causing us to lose those protections, and at an alarming rate I might add. Our ignorance of history creates an ungodly lack of appreciation for what God has providentially given to us in our nation and we are watching it slip away. I believe that lack of understanding on the part of the church and that lack of action to protect what God has richly blessed us with is a great abomination to God.

The erosion of Free Exercise in our nation is going on unabated at an alarming rate...when the day comes where Pastors are arrested for "hate speech" ...it will be a direct result of what we see happening now...and we think its ok...each link in the chain of Constitutional protection is breaking away from another link every day.

Maybe the American Church needs to be stripped of these God given protections in order for the American church to come under intense persecution to strengthen it...and shake it out of its sin of apathy.

Another Nail In The Coffin of Limited Government

The United States House of Representatives is composed of 435 members. Congressional sessions last two years (because of the two year term length of House members). We are in the 2nd year of the 113th Congress.

The Republicans hold a 232 member majority over 200 Democrats (there are currently three empty seats). If you do the math of the 435 member body, you see that it only takes 218 votes to hold a majority. The Republicans hold what some would call a "supermajority".  Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution vests COMPLETE power of spending in the House side of our bicameral congress.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 221 - 201 to raise our nation's debt limit once again and strap more debt onto the backs of our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, etc..., 28 of the 227 Republicans voting, backed the measure.

We are told over and over and over again that if we will just give the Republicans a majority in the Senate...they will save our country. Don't get me wrong, we need to elect strong Constitutional Conservatives....but folks it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. Oh, I understand...It took me while to get here too...to come to the realization that Washington D.C. WILL NOT ever reign in spending nor place themselves back under the original intent of the framers of the United States Constitution and limited government. Decades of the courts twisting, contorting, stretching, and perverting the language of our Constitution have placed us adrift from the original intent of the framers to limit our federal government. The modern "Living Constitution" interpretations of the "General Welfare" clause and the "Commerce" clause and many other distortions of the text easily lends cover to these elected legislators and the President to ignore the intent of the framers. They tell us they are following the Constitution but they are not, they are following a long revised and twisted interpretation of our Rule of Law.

When you get to the point that you can see this...that Washington D.C. is not going to take any meaningful steps to restrain itself...then come join us at the Convention of States Project.  George Mason and the framers told us this might happen and they gave us the lawful, orderly process to put the federal government back inside the fence of the Constitution.

The reality is that we are dealing with a federal legislature that is falling down drunk on spending and federal power. They are hammering nail after nail into the coffin of limited government.

I offer you the history of Article V. Read it here and see God's providential hand moving during the framing of our Constitution to give us a method, a process if you will... to return to the safe harbor of Constitutionally limited government when the "National Legislature abuses their power, and refuses their consent" [George Mason].  This will not be an overnight fix. We didn't get here overnight...and the road back will not be easy. Article V is the process endorsed by every single one of the signers of the United States Constitution and ratified by the states.  Let's stand on the shoulders of the framers of our great Constitution and use what they gave us.

All Legislative Powers Herein Granted Shall Be Vested In A Congress Of The United States

This is a photo posted by Senator Mike Lee (one of the good guys) of a shelf containing all the regulations passed this year by unelected federal bureaucrats working for agencies under the Executive Branch.  You see folks, this is something that few understand, forgive me if you already know this but permit me to explain to those that might not understand.  Article I, Section I of the United States Constitution vests ALL lawmaking power in THE Congress (Article I Branch).  NO lawmaking power is vested in ANY OTHER BRANCH.  Congress over the years has created federal agencies (IRS, HHS, DOJ, EPA, etc...and on and on).  You or I could debate the merits of any of these agencies, most in my opinion are absolutely unnecessary at the federal level and maybe unnecessary altogether. However, honest people can debate that and disagree on the merits of each.  What we CANNOT debate, is the fact that our Constitution was set up to permit only ONE branch to make laws so that you and I could have a say in the lawmaking process through the ballot box every two years.

When Congress set up these agencies over the years and handed them over to the Executive Branch (Article II), they DIRECTLY handed over the power to legislate to these agencies and in effect handed legislative power directly to the President.  These agencies pass regulations to the tune of THOUSANDS of pages every year, the photo below that Mike Lee sent out shows just the pages of regulations (laws) that were put into place in these agencies to TORMENT you (think IRS, EPA, HHS/Obamacare....) and they are written by faceless people behind closed doors with ZERO accountability.

Look at the stack of regulations, 80,000 pages alone in 2013. Then look at the small stack of paper on top the shelf, that is the paper from laws actually passed by Congress in comparison.  Do you see what has been done here? Most of the regulations (Laws) passed by these agencies destroy business and torment citizens with oppressive confiscatory taxes and our Congress can turn around and tell us that they didn't do it...the executive agencies did it....therefore, the end result is no one is accountable.

 

Understand this important principle so that you can let these folks know that you are on to them whenever you get the chance.  These kinds things show how broken our federal government really is. I is high time for the states to get together and demand some changes.  The folks we send to Washington, by and large are not going to address this.  Know this, they can address this...but they have no intention whatsoever of doing anything about it. They wring their hands and point the finger at the Executive as if they don't know anything about Article I, Section I and the Constitutional mandate that only CONGRESS enact laws. They established these agencies, they can de establish them...they can cut off funding using the power vested in them in Article I, Section 7, but they refuse to do that too. We recently got to see this dereliction of duty in the House of Representatives when they had the opportunity in a continuing resolution for funding to defund the so called Affordable Care Act and they refused to do it.

Join us at the Convention of States Project.  The COS is the lawful, orderly, Constitutional route to driving a stake in the heart of the runaway federal government.

The Congress "shall call a convention."

Hamilton made it clear in Federalist 85 that Congress must call a Convention when 2/3rds of the states apply.

"By the fifth article of the plan, the Congres will be obliged "on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the States [which at present amount to nine], to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof." The words of this article are peremptory. The Congress "shall call a convention." Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that body. And of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to a change vanishes in air". - Alexander Hamilton Federalist 85

Nothing is perfect. What we do know and can take to the bank is that the "National Legislature" to use George Mason's term, is going to do nothing to change its present trajectory. They will not do anything to curtail the leviathan federal government that is for all intents and purposes, out of control. It is out of control due to decades of perversion of the Rule of Law (Constitution). The 2nd mode of Article V grants the states the vehicle to end run Washington and "reset" the language or clarify the language of areas that are most abused, i.e. the Commerce clause and the General Welfare clause etc... The founders made this very clear, they told us, it's right there in Madison's notes of the Federal Convention of 1787. June 11 and Sep 15 of 1787 in particular, carry the events that surround the adoption of the 2nd mode of Article V. George Mason specifically advocated for this end run when he said "no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive".

At the end of the day so to speak, you can disagree with the COS strategy and those of us that are advocating for this... good people can disagree. It will come down to whether you think our present course of action of electing more people to Washington that tell us they will do something....and we wait, and wait, and wait...and but save a few...they stab us in the back once they begin to taste the intoxicating power of Washington...It will come down to whether you think that strategy is working.
At the Convention of States Project....we've had enough. That strategy is clearly not working and we're ready to use what the founders/framers gave us in Article V.  They are screaming at us from 1787 to use what they gave us. It's not perfect and it wont be easy, but it is the lawful and orderly process written into the Constitution for the people of the states to deal with an out of control federal government.

Term Limits

Would you like to see term limits enacted on members of the United States Congress, perhaps even on members of the Supreme Court, the federal judiciary? 75% of the American people answer "Yes" when polled with the straight up question: "Do you support Term Limits for members of the United States Congress?"

  

I can almost guarantee that if we get an Article V Convention, this alone will cause most of those 535 members of Congress to wet their pants.

 

In theory, there is nothing wrong with keeping a good public servant in office for as long as the official and we the voters want him or her there. But through gerrymandering of House districts, congressional perks, a ton of free media, incumbents are simply ridiculously hard to remove from office.  Our framers NEVER envisioned elected officials to make a career of serving in Congress and this practice has led to a power drunk United States Congress that in many ways appears to be in intentional collusion with the other branches in order to maintain power, whether it be in minority party of the majority party.

  

Do you think the United States Congress will EVER propose such an amendment via the U.S. Congress? The vast majority of our current 535 members of both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate are staggering, falling down drunk on the intoxicating effects of Congressional perks and power.

 

Article V of The United States Constitution provides a second mode for proposing amendments that has never been used. Today, there are many who have never studied or even read Article V that are fearful of using the mode because like most things that are feared, they simply do not understand it. I don't say this disparagingly other than that it is very frustrating that many that oppose this...when I talk to them and explain it...they never knew that it was actually IN the Constitution.  They say that we need to use the process whereby Congress proposes amendments and sends them to the states...they talk about "opening up the Constitution" when we use this process. That kind of talk betrays their misunderstanding or lack of understanding altogether on Article V.  The second mode that involves the states is no different than the first mode whereby the U.S. Congress proposes amendments, the ONLY difference being that the amendments would come from the states without ANY participation by the United States Congress.  That thought almost makes me want to do cartwheels.  But here is the thing that most don't seem to understand.  An Article V COS cannot change one word of the Constitution on its own.  Just like all 27 of our current amendments that came from the U.S. Congress, any amendment coming from a COS MUST be sent back to all 50 states for ratification and a minimum of 3/4ths (38) would have to ratify them for any of them to take effect.

 

An Article V Convention of States could more than likely move such an amendment to the states in the first few days of a Convention...I suspect it would be the kind of "low hanging fruit" that could be proposed as an amendment and pumped out to the states for ratification almost immediately. Then 38 states would have to ratify such an amendment for term limits to be part of the United States Constitution.

  

I am the State Director in South Carolina for the Convention of States Project. Many other states right now have someone just like me doing the same thing. You can volunteer as a District Captain here in South Carolina or in any state that now has a growing grassroots COS movement. Help us do this by signing up at www.conventionofstates.com