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Viki Harrison
Director of Constitutional Convention and Protect Dissent Programs
Legislation
Frighteningly, they are just a few states away from succeeding.
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, Congress is required to hold a constitutional convention if two-thirds of state legislatures (34 states) call for one. However, there are no rules for an Article V convention outlined in the Constitution. There are no rules about:
Article V does not give the president, the U.S. Congress or state legislatures any control over a convention, and in Coleman v. Miller (1939) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that disputes about amending the Constitution are “political questions” into which federal courts may not intervene. Changes proposed by an Article V convention would remain open for ratification by the states indefinitely, potentially obtaining the required number of states after a “wave election.” For example, the 27th Amendment was ratified in 1992, more than two centuries after Congress proposed it in 1789.
This is why leading figures on both the left and right have raised concerns about a runaway Article V convention. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote in 1988 that a “Constitutional Convention today would be a free-for-all for special interest groups, television coverage, and press speculation.” Even Justice Antonin Scalia said in 2014, “I certainly would not want a constitutional convention. I mean whoa. Who knows what would come out of that?”
Right now, there are four major campaigns for an Article V convention:
Regardless of opinions on these individual issues, the problem is the same: an Article V convention would open the U.S. Constitution up to revision in a forum that risks being hijacked by powerful partisan, ideological, and wealthy special interests in ways that threaten and could roll back our hard-won freedoms.
The campaign closest to meeting the 34-state threshold is the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) campaign with 28 states and backing from wealthy special interests. The second closest is the Convention of States (COS) campaign with 19 states.
If these campaigns are successful, this would be the first constitutional convention since the original convention in 1787—all constitutional amendments since then have been passed first by Congress and then approved by three-fourths of the state legislatures.
Florida previously passed calls for an Article V convention as part of the Balanced Budget campaign (2010 and 2014), Convention of States campaign (2014), and Term Limits campaign (2016).
In 2014, Florida also created the Article V Constitutional Convention Act (11.93-11.9352 F.S.), which outlines the appointment of delegates by the Florida Legislature, how the delegates will be instructed, and the creation of an advisory group to oversee the delegates. These statutes provide some guardrails for Florida delegates but may be changed by the Florida Legislature at any time. These statutes also have no impact on the selection or oversight of delegates by other states.
In the 2024 legislative session, Florida again passed calls for an Article V Convention as part of the Balanced Budget and Term Limits campaigns, and added calls for a convention for Equal Application of the Law and Line-item Veto.
These bills re-up Florida’s already existing call for a dangerous Article V Convention, but thankfully do not add a new state towards the 34-state threshold.
Recognizing the risks, multiple states have rescinded their prior applications for an Article V convention in recent years, including Colorado and New Jersey in 2021, Illinois in 2022, and Oregon in 2023. Florida legislators who want to protect the Constitution and Bill of Rights from the dangers of an Article V convention can REJECT bills calling for a convention and file new legislation to RECIND Florida’s past applications for a constitutional convention.
Director of Constitutional Convention and Protect Dissent Programs