The States Empower the Federal Government, Not the Other Way Around: Karla Jones on KWTO Radio

ALEC Senior Director of the International Relations and Federalism Task Force Karla Jones joined  Springfield, MO’s KWTO radio host Tim Jones for a discussion about federalism and the new ALEC video series on Article V and the Convention of the States process.

Our Founders believed the states empower the federal government, not the other way around. It is encapsulated in the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which basically says the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Under Article V of the Constitution, states can propose amendments. There are basically two ways to amend the Constitution, either two thirds of both Houses of Congress need to petition for to propose an amendment or two thirds of the states, which with 50 states, is 34 states.  If 34 states adopt applications, then it is incumbent upon the U.S. Congress to call a place, a time and a date for an amendment’s convention. And that would be a convention, a delegation where each state would send commissioners or delegates, the terms are interchangeable, to the convention to consider a constitutional amendment limited to the scope of the application. So, for example, Missouri has adopted an application limiting congressional terms, so making it so that Members of Congress could not serve in Congress for decades.