Much press has been given to radio host Mark Levin over his favorable position for an Amendment Convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.
We have one criticism of the approach that you should think about. It has to do with an elected official’s Oath of Office. I start with an important side note. A mainline conservative essayist recently lambasted the House of Representatives for not bringing Articles of Impeachment against the President regarding his ObamaCare lies. There have been many acts Obama has taken which are considered unconstitutional but the most grievous and very clear ones have been his “moving” of target dates required by the ACA. These target dates, as written in the law, require that only Congress can modify them, not the President.
That essayist wrote the reason Impeachment has not been entertained by the House is that it would die in the Senate controlled by Democrats. But the precise point the writer made is that the Oath of Office was not predicated on whether moving on Impeachment required weighing its subsequent success in the Senate. Their Oath requires that upon finding evidence of actions worthy of Impeachment, the House must initiate the indictment.
Knowing what they know today, each House member, we believe, has violated their Oaths on the matter of the President’s unilateral changes in the health care law.
About Article V. All the requisite conditions necessary to “Call” an Article V Amendment Convention have long passed. Why no call? No Congressperson will rise up and make the call. Why? Same with the ObamaCare illustration above, in the sense that there would be many obstacles met in getting the “Call” through Congress. But that is not what an Oath is about. Does a Policeman not write a parking ticket because he thinks it will be dismissed by a corrupt judge? No. He writes the ticket because that’s his responsibility.
Because of the trashing the Article V “Call” has taken over the years, Levin and a group called “Convention of States” want to start the Article V process again. No, it first starts with a member of the House moving the motion in making the “Call”. Immediately! Based on the historical evidence, Oaths have been violated in this regard. A few years ago Article V supporters sued members of Congress; that suit reached the Supreme Court. SCOTUS ruled (our appreciation of the ruling) that calling an Article V Convention was a parliamentary necessity, not one requiring Supreme Court action. In other words, the fight is internal within the Congressional Rules of Procedure.
We applaud Mark Levin for bringing public attention to Article V. However, we believe that he should first help bring pressure on Congress to stand on their feet and make that “Call.” Congress needs to be targeted since many of its members have broken their Oaths of Office.
First things first!
