According to the Convention of States Action organization, “[Robert] George is a signer of the Jefferson Statement, which became the Legal Board of Reference for the Convention of States Project.”
That list of luminaries seems to be the guiding intellects behind the Convention of States movement. Indeed, they are described as the “Legal Board of Reference for the Convention of States Project.”
Let us explore what kind of changes board member Robert P. George would advocate. He took part in the National Constitution Center’s Constitution Drafting project. He was the principal co-author of a model constitution titled “The Conservative Constitution.”
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution presently states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
George proposed to change it to say:
“All persons have the inalienable right to the free exercise of religion in accordance with conscience.”
Did you notice the slight change? The First Amendment has been changed from recognizing an assumed God-given right to the right flowing from George’s constitution itself. The authentic First Amendment assumes that the people have the God-given right to the free exercise of religion and places a limit on the government. Whereas, under the George variation, his constitution has become the source of a person’s rights. “All persons have the inalienable right …” Under George’s rubric, the right to the free exercise of religion is granted to the people (making it a privilege).
Once the inalienable God-given right has been transformed into a supposed “inalienable” privilege, the limitations on that right can be instituted. And George proceeds to do just that. For example, in the George revision, the supposed inalienable right to freedom of religion can be prohibited, impeded, or penalized when it is “necessary to secure public peace and order or comparably compelling public ends.” That does not sound so inalienable to me.
The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution presently provides:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Robert George does not much like that language, so he changed it. George’s “Conservative Constitution” states:
“Neither the States nor the United State shall make or enforce any law infringing the right to keep and bear arms of the sort ordinarily used for self-defense or recreational purposes, provided that States, and the United States in places subject to its general regulatory authority, may enact and enforce reasonable regulations on the bearing of arms, and the keeping of arms by persons determined, with due process, to be dangerous to themselves or others.”
Notice that the only right protected is the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense or recreational purposes. And it is only those arms ordinarily used for those purposes that are protected. Any arms deemed not in ordinary use for self-defense or recreation are not protected. But protection of the right to bear self-defense and recreational arms was not the primary reason for the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is for the purpose of giving the people the ability to resist a tyrannical government that would seek to infringe on their God-given rights to life, liberty, and property. The Second Amendment is the enforcement provision in the Constitution. The people must have the right to resist tyranny. That is why it says that “[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State. The militia is not necessary for the security of a tyrannical state; it is necessary to ensure the security of a “free” state.
George was not finished stripping the people of their right to resist tyranny. He then adds a limitation on the right to self-defense by saying that the right to bear arms for that purpose is subject to the general regulatory authority of the state and federal governments. He enumerates that the state and federal governments “may enact and enforce reasonable regulations on the bearing of arms, and the keeping of arms by persons determined, with due process, to be dangerous to themselves or others.” That language is sufficient to seize virtually all weapons from the people. The vaccine mandates should wake people up to what the federal and state governments think of due process protections.
The Ninth Amendment presently states:
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
What that means is that the Bill of Rights is only a partial list of your God-given rights. You are not granted rights in the Bill of Rights. The rights are granted by God, and the Bill of Rights merely enumerates (lists) some of the important ones. All other God-given rights are retained by the people.
George does not much like the Ninth Amendment either, and so he provided the following change:
“The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed, by negative implication, to deny or abrogate rights, privileges, or immunities arising from other sources of law, which shall be retained by the People; or to enlarge the powers of the state or federal governments.”
Notice that he takes away the concept of God-given rights. He changes the remaining rights of the people to only those “rights, privileges, or immunities arising from other sources of law.” That means that there must be some legal source that recognizes the asserted right. For example, it would not be enough to cite to the Bible to argue that the unborn child has a God-given right to life. Under George’s new construct, there must be some “legal source.”.
The Tenth Amendment currently provides:
“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.”
What that means is that the federal government is a government of specifically enumerated powers. All powers not specifically granted in the Constitution are reserved to the states and to the people. George eviscerates that limitation by deleting the Tenth Amendment from his “Conservative Constitution.” That opens up the Constitution to be interpreted to allow for certain implied powers of the federal government.
The Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution was intended by the founders as a limit only on the federal government. After the civil war and the resulting 14th Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has selectively incorporated many of the Bill of Rights into the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and applied them to the states. But George has taken that a step further. Every limiting provision in George’s “Conservative Constitution” is a limit on both the federal and state governments. But the states already have their own constitutions with their own Bills of Rights. George’s constitution applies a uniform Bill of Rights to the federal and state governments. That undermines the federalism of the U.S. Constitution. That uniform Bill of Rights would clear the way for the amalgamation and absorption of the states under an all-powerful national government.
Alex Newman in a February 21, 2022 post on the New American, explains:
The dark money-funded “Convention of States” movement to open up the U.S. Constitution to amendments in a constitutional convention appears to be a Deep State plot to put the final nails into the coffin of America’s constitutional republic, warns The New American magazine’s Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. Of course, Deep State operatives have long been hoping to overthrow the Constitution and the limits on government it establishes, but they have always failed while trying to use liberals. Now, they are buying prominent conservatives and Republican legislators with shadowy, anonymous money, and obviously deceptive arguments. And they are making much more progress than ever before. Deep State moneyman George Soros, meanwhile, is funding left-wing efforts to call an Article V Convention. On the Convention of States side, one of chief Mark Meckler’s board members and close associates in the effort is actually a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Share this episode widely before it’s too late!