Jeff Atwood
I had not heard about this (US pol) https://www.commoncause.org/work/stopping-a-dangerous-article-v-convention/
Stopping a Dangerous Article V Convention

Find out about the current threat of an Article V Convention in the US. Understand the potential consequences of a convention to rewrite the Constitution.

Common Cause
Mar 14 at 9:44amWeb
Show threadJeff AtwoodMar 14

"Because the Constitution uses the word shall, Congress has no legal authority to debate whether a convention is a good idea. They cannot vote it down. If 34 states submit valid applications, Congress's role is reduced to purely administrative work: they simply have to set the time and the place for the convention to happen."

"One of the most powerful aspects of this mechanism is that it entirely bypasses the executive branch"

"Because this has never happened in American history, there is no precedent. However, constitutional scholars generally agree on the sequence of events .. The case would be fast-tracked directly to the U.S. Supreme Court .. Assuming the Supreme Court follows the plain text of the Constitution, they would have to order Congress to call the convention under threat of being in contempt of the highest court in the land."

"the Founders specifically designed this clause to be a loaded gun aimed at Washington. If the states pull the trigger by reaching the number 34, the Constitution legally binds Congress to hold the convention, whether they want to or not."

🤔

Show threadJeff AtwoodMar 14
I see. The BBA is relatively close to the threshold and the current 28 states (34 needed, 6 more) have a huge partisan divide.
Show threadJeff Atwood5d ago
"I think Apple and Google should become nation states, but you didn't mention that" 🤔
Show threadJoe5d ago
@codinghorror It's not the stupidest thing in there, but I'm unreasonably annoyed by them comparing Market Cap to GDP like that means anything
Show threadChris Green5d ago
@codinghorror I know the average tech ceo hasn't voluntarily read a novel without a spaceship on the cover since they got out of school but it's amazing that they didn't understand the books they read as teenagers and have based their life on were DYSTOPIAN fiction. Do androids dream of electric sheep is a horrifying world of ecological devastation, criime, and violence with a theme of the collapse of empathy. Something to fight to prevent. Not an original observation but it still shocks me.
Show threadJeff Atwood5d ago
@aachrisg "do androids dream of electric sheep is a horrifying world of ecological devastation, crime, and violence with a theme of the collapse of empathy" and that's different what have now in the USA .. how exactly? I don't see any of this ending neatly. I don't even really see any other path forward, to be honest. (referring to constitutional convention, not necessarily corporate nations, but I think some kind of new hybrid run by sane, functioning groups of adults could in fact work)
Show threadTarusMar 14
@codinghorror do note that any proposed amendments still have to be ratified by 75% (38) states. Just holding a convention does not make it part of the Constitution
Show threadDarren du Nord6d ago
@codinghorror This has been their goal all along, for decades, the reason for investing heavily in state legislative elections.
Show threadLeeRayl6d ago

@codinghorror I learned this a long time ago, early 90’s, it was taught in my civics class.

I believe it is possible and felt it should have been used for the ERA and to codify Roe a long time ago.

Show threadJeff Atwood6d ago
@leerayl I think the situation we are in requires a constitutional convention in one way or another.
Show threadJ. Peterson6d ago
@codinghorror As I suspected. Any attempt to amend or modify the constitution is the domain of right-wing/MAGA lunatics, because they control the majority of empty flyover states.
Show threadMutesplashMar 14
@codinghorror Bad actor took your "not possible" constitutional amendment comments seriously 🤪 I guess. Build _bad_ consensus first, then flip this switch...
Show threadJeff Atwood6d ago
@Mutesplash well, that just accellerates the 3 countries outcome..
Show threada kilo of saucepans (rakslice)6d ago

@codinghorror I'm curious how much consensus there is about the opinion that a convention isn't subject to the limitations placed on it

https://web.archive.org/web/20181020151851/http://foa5c.org/file.php/1/Amendments/CR%20149%20%20%20Pg%20S06977%20%20Yr%202003-AZ-Rescission_HL.JPG

Wayback Machine

Show threada kilo of saucepans (rakslice)6d ago
@codinghorror (in other words that all conventions are functionally the same regardless of where they fall in the classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_applications_for_an_Article_V_Convention#Van_Sickle%E2%80%93Boughey_classification)
List of state applications for an Article V Convention - Wikipedia