Constitutional Convention: Where You Stand Depends on Where You sit

There has not been a constitutional convention since the original in Philadelphia. A 2016 report from the Congressional Research Service discusses the process of calling a convention, as well as the questions and uncertainties surrounding that process. In the 1990s, the issue came up in the context of a balanced budget amendment.

As with so many issues, remember Miles's Law: where you stand depends on where you sit.

Jeanne Kuang at CalMatters:

The California Senate voted this week to reverse course on the state’s calls for a constitutional convention, one of which many Democrats supported just two years ago at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s urging.

With the President Donald Trump administration at the helm and Republicans running Congress, Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, said the state should err on the side of caution by revoking its past seven calls for a session to rewrite the Constitution.

Congress can convene such a session if 34 states call for one — though it’s never actually happened before. California is one of 28 states with pending calls for a convention on the books, according to the nonpartisan Common Cause, and some Republicans nationally have pushed for one. Constitutional amendments require 38 states to ratify.

As currently written, the Constitution guarantees such bedrock American rights as free speech, equal protection of the laws and birthright citizenship.

Wiener: “I shudder to think what (the Trump administration) would do to Californians’ basic rights if given the chance to rewrite the Constitution itself. There are no guardrails once a constitutional convention has been triggered … California must do its part to prevent this chaos.”

His resolution to revoke California’s calls passed the Senate on Monday with 27 votes in favor, including one Republican and 15 of the Democrats who previously supported holding a convention. The resolution heads next to the Assembly. If passed, it would rescind the seven pending calls from California, dating back to 1911, to amend the constitution on issues ranging from labor laws to campaign finance.

But to actually rescind the calls, lawmakers will need the support of Newsom — who pushed for the last constitutional rewrite resolution in 2023 as he positioned himself as a national leader on gun control. In 2023 he proposed a constitutional amendment to require a federal minimum age of 21 for firearm purchases, universal background checks, a waiting period between purchasing and receiving a gun and a ban on selling assault weapons. As CalMatters reported last year, those efforts have gone nowhere, with not a single other state having joined the call.

Newsom’s office did not respond when asked whether he still supports a convention under the current presidential administration and Congress.