COS Hawking Dubious “Guidelines” for Amendments Convention

The New American’s Christian Gomez sits down with author and contributor to The New American magazine Joe Wolverton to discuss his online article titled, “Convention of States: ‘Guidelines’ for Writing Amendments to the Constitution” In this interview, Wolverton responds to a blogpost article published on the COS website titled “Seven Guidelines for Drafting Proposed Amendments.”

Wolverton points out the inconsistency of COS for repeatedly claiming that even if a bad or horrible amendment(s) emerged from a future Article V Convention that it would never be ratified by three-fourths of the states (currently 38 out of 50), while simultaneously admitting that the 18th amendment (prohibition of alcohol) was an example of a horrible amendment, which was ratified by three-fourths of the states! Wolverton further points out that three-fourths of the states also ratified the disastrous 16th and 17th amendments (individual income tax and direct election of U.S. senators, respectively). Wolverton also debunks COS’s “guideline” that only amendments that are “germane to the application” can be proposed at an Article V Convention.

Joe Wolverton II, J.D., is the author of the books The Real James Madison and “What Degree of Madness?”: Madison’s Method to Make America STATES Again. His latest book — The Founders Recipe — provides selections from the 37 authors most often quoted by the Founding Generation. He hosts the YouTube channel “Teacher of Liberty” and also posts content on TikTok.