Dear editor:

Many lawmakers, activists, and a large share of the public now support a constitutional amendment, imposing fiscal restraints and term limits on Congress. Experience has shown that Congress is unlikely to propose such limits on itself, which has led to increased interest in the U.S. Constitution’s provision, allowing states to propose amendments. This process is referred to in the Constitution as an “Article V Convention for proposing amendments.”

At this month’s GOP convention, a poorly worded resolution entitled “No Article V Convention, known as a Constitutional Convention” was re-introduced from 2024. The title alone reveals the author’s fundamental misunderstanding.

A Constitutional Convention drafts an entirely new charter. An Article V Convention is strictly limited to proposing specific amendments. The two are NOT the same.

The GOP’s resolution “respectfully asks” our state legislators to oppose all Article V applications. In practice, it orders them to block the will of 13,000 Wyoming citizens, 22 state senators, 25 house members, and 20 other states that have already passed identical applications. Ask yourself, who is and who isn’t defending the U.S. Constitution?

If the Constitution were consistently interpreted according to its original meaning, many of today’s federal problems would not exist. Instead, officials follow Supreme Court precedents and loopholes rather than the document’s text and intent. The most effective way to close those loopholes and restore clear limits on federal power is through an Article V Convention of the States.

Such a convention has the same power as Congress under Article V; it can only propose amendments which still require ratification by 38 states — the same safeguard that has produced all 27 existing amendments. Fears of a “runaway convention” lack historical basis and ignore 42 prior interstate conventions that stayed within their mandates, operated on a one state-one vote basis, and never attempted wholesale rewriting of the Constitution.

This campaign season, ask candidates whether they merely call themselves “constitutionalists” or whether their actions show real courage in defending the ENTIRE U.S. Constitution — including the second clause of Article V.

Don’t take my word for it. Educate yourself at conventionofstates.com … “know the truth, and the truth will set you free” — John 8:32.

Sheila Leach

Cody