BOSTON—State Senator Jason Lewis joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts Legislature to pass joint resolutions in the Senate and House of Representatives which rescind all previous applications for a national constitutional convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.
This joint initiative is in response to concerns that the U.S. Congress and the Trump administration could attempt to use prior, outdated Massachusetts resolutions to call for an Article V constitutional convention to drastically modify the U.S. Constitution and roll back basic rights and protections to advance their own political agenda.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen that President Trump is ready and willing to use any opportunity and tool, lawful or not, to advance his destructive policies around immigration, healthcare, education, national security, and more, and even infringe upon our personal rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom to protest,” said Senator Jason Lewis. “An ill-planned and unprecedented constitutional congress could destroy the fabric of our free and democratic nation, and Massachusetts will not let that happen.”
The Legislature’s action makes Massachusetts the 17th state to rescind all prior applications for an Article V convention, and reaffirms that any constitutional decisions should reflect the will of today’s elected lawmakers and the people they represent.
An Article V convention is a process outlined in the U.S. Constitution allowing states to propose amendments if two-thirds (34) of state legislatures call for it. An Article V convention could open the entire Constitution to unpredictable changes, as there are no clear guidelines or limitations on what delegates could propose. While an Article V convention has never been called before in American history, there is recent conservative momentum to add up all active resolutions, regardless of how old they are, to meet the two-thirds threshold.
Massachusetts had several outdated Article V resolutions pending before Congress, including one sent in 1977 asking for an Article V convention to constitutionally ban abortions. These dormant calls have been cited in national legal strategies pushing for a convention, arguing they could still be considered active and contribute to the 34-state count. Sixteen states have already taken action to rescind all of their previous calls.
Both chambers of the Legislature voted to approve the resolutions, and the House and Senate Clerks will transmit copies of the resolutions to the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and to the Secretary of the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C.
