Rules For A Constitutional Convention

[Mikestone8]

There is a never yet used constitutional provision for Congress, on application by two-thirds of the States, to call a Constitutional Convention to submit Amendments to the States.

Have any ground rules been laid down tor this situation? Would such a convention be elected by the people of the States, or by the State Legislatures? Or would each state decide that for itself?

[SteveRogers]

There are no ground rules for how the convention itself would be run. However, I do believe several states have laws on the books for how to elect their delegates to such a convention.

[MarkD]

Each state legislature, most likely, will choose the delegates ("commissioners") or their state. Ostensibly, they could choose to make the selection via a referendum with the voters, but because of the time and cost involved, it will make more sense to just select the delegates themselves.

Convention of States Project, an organization I support and belong to, has a FAQ page that addresses some of the questions about how an Article V convention will be run.

COSP FAQs

I recommend "What is a Convention of States?" "How Do States Choose Their Delegates?" "What Happens at a Convention of States?" "Article V says Congress 'calls' the convention. Does this mean they control the Convention and choose the delegates?" "How Do We Know How a Convention of States Will Work?" Among some of the answers in there, you'll find links to a handbook and an essay by Prof. Rob Natelson - who has done extensive research into the history of interstate conventions - as well as COSP's own handbook, which also goes into greater detail how they believe the convention will work.

Keep in mind that COSP is definitely a right-wing organization, in terms of its leadership and most of its supporters. Many of the ideas for amendments they are coming up with will not be the slightest bit appealing to left-wingers, and so will not be ratified. I first discovered COSP on Facebook.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=264160.0

[Greedo punched first]

There aren't many guidelines for a convention. States that have referendums, like California, would likely use a referendum to pick delegates.

[StateBoiler]

There aren't many guidelines for a convention. States that have referendums, like California, would likely use a referendum to pick delegates.

There was a convention of states hosted by the Arizona legislature in September 2017 that specifically laid down the ground rules at least for that instance. It was the first time anything of that sort had even been held since the 1861 pre-Civil War convention that attempted to stop the war from occurring. There's video records of proceedings at the Arizona legislature's website, and you can go to bbaplanningconvention.org as well.

[ag]

There aren't many guidelines for a convention. States that have referendums, like California, would likely use a referendum to pick delegates.

There was a convention of states hosted by the Arizona legislature in September 2017 that specifically laid down the ground rules at least for that instance. It was the first time anything of that sort had even been held since the 1861 pre-Civil War convention that attempted to stop the war from occurring. There's video records of proceedings at the Arizona legislature's website, and you can go to bbaplanningconvention.org as well.

Of course, it goes without saying that an actual Convention would be free to disregard any rules this gathering considered - and would likely do so.